This article about the Toungoo minister-general. See Binnya Dala for the last king of Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. Agga Maha Thenapati Binnya Dala (, ; also spelled Banya Dala; 1518–1573) was a Burmese statesman, general and writer-scholar during the reign of King Bayinnaung of Toungoo Dynasty. He was the king's most trusted adviser and general, and a key figure responsible for the expansion, defense and administration of Toungoo Empire from the 1550s to his fall from grace in 1573. He oversaw the rebuilding of Pegu (1565–1568). He is also known for his literary works, particularly Razadarit Ayedawbon, the earliest extant chronicle of the Mon people. He died in exile after having failed to reconquer Lan Xang. Early life and career Little is known about his early life except that he was an ethnic Mon born in 1518/1519 (880 ME) in Hanthawaddy Kingdom. His birth name is unknown—the name Binnya Dala was a senior title of the Hanthawaddy court, (and later of Toungoo and Restored Hanthawaddy courts). Judging by his later literary works, he was highly educated, and fluent in both his native Mon and Burmese. Likewise, based on his senior ministerial and military leadership roles first achieved in the mid-1550s, he was likely a junior-to-mid-level officer in the service of King Tabinshwehti of Toungoo Dynasty in the 1540s, and may have begun his career in the service of King Takayutpi of Hanthawaddy in the late 1530s. The first confirmed record of him as a senior commander came in 1555 when he and three other Toungoo commanders drove out the retreating forces of the Confederation of Shan States from Singu. Rise (1556–1559) His rise to the upper echelons of Toungoo command was rapid. In 1556, he was a minister at the court at Pegu, which was considering its policy toward the cis-Salween Shan states. While others proposed piecemeal approaches, he proposed a bold plan: assemble an overwhelming military force, and then take on all the states in one stroke. With his down-to-earth personality, he successfully persuaded the initially skeptical court and king. When Bayinnaung's massive forces invaded in 1557, all non-Chinese cis-Salween states submitted one after another with minimal resistance. Bayinnaung in one stroke controlled most of the cis-Salween Shan states from the Patkai range at the Assamese border in the northwest to Mohnyin and Mogaung in the north to Momeik and Thibaw in the northeast to Mone in the east. The