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{{For|the imported Chinese stoneware valued in island Southeast Asia|Tapayan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox settlement
| settlement_type = Town
| name =
| native_name = {{hlist|မုတ္တမ|မုဟ်တၟံ}}
| official_name = Mottama
| pushpin_label_position = bottom
| pushpin_map = Burma
| pushpin_map_caption = Location in Burma
| image_skyline = Kyaik-Pallan-Puu-Martaban.jpg
| image_map =
| map_caption =
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = {{Flag|Myanmar}}
| subdivision_type1 = [[Administrative divisions of Myanmar|State]]
| subdivision_name1 = {{flag|Mon State}}
| subdivision_type2 = [[Districts of Myanmar|District]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Thaton District]]
| unit_pref = Imperial
| area_total_km2 =
| population =
| population_as_of =
| population_blank1 = [[Mon people|Mon]], [[Bamar|Burman]], [[Karen people|Karen]]
| population_blank1_title = Ethnicities
| population_blank2 = [[Theravada]] Buddhism
| population_blank2_title = Religions
| population_density_km2 = auto
| coordinates = {{coord|16|31|48|N|97|36|08|E|region:MM|display=inline,title}}
| leader_title = Mayor
| elevation_ft =
| elevation_m =
| timezone = [[Myanmar Standard Time|MST]]
| utc_offset = +6:30
| website =
}}

'''Mottama''' ({{lang-my|မုတ္တမမြို့}}, {{IPA-my|moʊʔtəma̰ mjo̰|pron}}; '''Muttama''' {{lang-mnw|မုဟ်တၟံ}}, {{IPA-mnw|mùh mɔˀ|}}; formerly '''Martaban''') is a town in the [[Thaton District]] of [[Mon State]], [[Myanmar]]. Located on the west bank of the [[Salween river|Thanlwin river]] (Salween), on the opposite side of [[Mawlamyaing]], Mottama was the capital of the [[Hanthawaddy Kingdom|Martaban Kingdom]] (later known as Hanthawaddy Kingdom) from 1287 to 1364, and an [[entrepôt]] of international repute until the mid-16th century.

==Etymology==
"Mottama" derives from the [[Mon language]] term "'''Mumaw'''" ({{lang-mnw|မုဟ်တၟံ}}; {{IPA|/mùh mɔˀ/}}), which means "rocky spur."<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://sealang.net/mon/ |title=Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon |last=Shorto |first=H.L. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1962 |access-date=10 October 2018 |archive-date=24 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124063709/http://sealang.net/mon/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tun |first=Than |date=1988 |title=Observations on the Translation and Annotation of the Royal Orders of Burma |journal=Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=91–99 |jstor=40860260}}</ref>

==History==

===Prior to 15th century===
{{See also|List of rulers of Martaban}}
[[File:Silk Road in the I century AD - en.svg|left|thumb|250x250px|The Silk Road in the 1st century]]
From the 2nd century BCE to the 15th century CE, Martaban was an important trading port. The historic [[Maritime Silk Road]] connected the [[Eastern world|East]] and [[Western culture|West]], and [[Martaban jar|Martaban storage jars]] were imported through this trade route.

The earliest evidence of the existence of Martaban in [[History of Myanmar|Myanmar history]] was revealed in an inscription erected by King [[Narapatisithu|Sithu II]] of the [[Bagan Kingdom|Bagan Empire]] in 1176.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The mists of Rāmañña: The Legend that was Lower Burma (illustrated ed.) |last=Aung-Thwin |first=Michael |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |year=2005 |isbn=9780824828868 |location=Honolulu}}</ref>

The ancient city was called Sampanago (Campа̄nа̄ga, lit. City of Serpents) or Puñjaluin in the Mon language. It may also be referred to within the context of Muttama-Dhañyawaddy or Sampanago-Lakunbyin as a roughly 45 kilometer stretch or settlements along the [[Salween River]] stretching from modern day Mottama to [[Hpa-an]]. Artifacts from the Sampanago site support a thriving sixth to ninth century culture with trade to other early sites over land and across the sea. Coins and cultural influences in artifacts indicate that Sampanago had close contacts with [[Thaton]] and early sites in [[U Thong]] and [[Kanchanaburi]]<ref name="moore">{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Elizabeth |author2=San Win |date=2014 |editor-last1=Revire |editor-first1=Nicholas |editor-last2=Murphy |editor-first2=Stephen |title=Before Siam was Born: New Insights on the Art and Archaeology of Pre-Modern Thailand and its Neighbouring Regions |publisher=River Books |pages=216–237 |chapter=Sampanago: "City of Serpents" and Muttama (Martaban)}}</ref>

In the 13th century, Martaban was a southern provincial capital in the [[Bagan Empire]]. After Bagan's collapse in 1287, King [[Wareru]] founded the [[Hanthawaddy Kingdom|Martaban Kingdom]] based out of Martaban.<ref name="Coedes">{{cite book |last=Coedès |first=George |author-link=George Coedès |editor=Walter F. Vella |others=trans.Susan Brown Cowing |title=The Indianized States of south-east Asia |year=1968 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-0368-1}}</ref>{{rp|205–206}} The city was the capital of a Mon-speaking kingdom from 1287 to 1364. Nominally it was a vassal state of the Thai [[Sukhothai Kingdom]] until 1314.<ref>{{Citation |last=Mukherjee |first=Rila |title=Pelagic Passageways: The Northern Bay of Bengal Before Colonialism |page=212 |year=2011 |publisher=Primus Books |author-link=Rila Mukherjee}}</ref> From 1369 onwards, the Hanthawaddy kings ruled the kingdom from [[Bago, Burma|Bago]] (Pegu).<ref name="geh-368">Harvey 1925: 368</ref> From 1364 to 1388, Martaban was under the de facto independent rule of [[Byattaba]]. In 1388, King [[Razadarit]] reconquered the city.<ref name="jf">Fernquest 2006: 7–8</ref> Though it was no longer the capital, the city remained an important trading port from the 14th century to the early 16th century.<ref name="rlf">Myint-U 2006: 67</ref>
[[File:Kyaik-Panllan-Puu-Bell.jpg|left|thumb|218x218px|Old Martaban bell (AD 1492) with [[Mon language]] inscription on it|alt=]]

The old name of the city, Martaban, came to mean 'jar' in several varieties of Arabic, and internationally for the large ceramic jars that were characteristic of the city's exports. In Egyptian Arabic, by metathesis, the word has changed to become batraman, and refers to any glass or ceramic jar.

===16th to 19th centuries===
{{See also|Taungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–1541)|Burmese–Siamese wars}}

In 1541, King [[Tabinshwehti]] of Taungoo captured the fortified city, and utterly destroyed it, forever relegating it back to a backwater. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Martaban was a strategic spot in a series of wars fought between [[Myanmar|Burma]] and [[Thailand|Siam]].

===Colonial Period===
Martaban was captured by the [[British Empire|British]] in the [[First Anglo-Burmese War]] of 1824–1826, but returned to Burmese administration after the war. It became the border town however as the entire Tenasserim coast from [[Mawlamyaing]] down became British territory. The town became part of British [[Lower Burma]] after the [[Second Anglo-Burmese War]] of 1852.

Rudyard Kipling refers to Martaban in his poem "In the Neolithic Age": "And the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban," suggesting he perceived it to be a place where immoral behavior was tolerated.

==Geography==
The [[Salween River]] flows through the town into the Bay of Martaban. The town's location is adjacent to the confluence of five rivers – the Salween, the [[Ataran River|Ataran]], the [[Gyaing River|Gyaing]], the Dontami, and the Hlaingbwe – as they empty into the [[Gulf of Martaban]]. The town is also surrounded by hills that continue located in the Salween valley where various crops are cultivated.<ref name="moore"/>

==Transport==
Mottama was the terminus of the road and the railroad from [[Yangon]], where the Thanlwin empties into the [[Gulf of Martaban]] in the [[Andaman Sea]]. Today [[Mawlamyaing Bridge]] has laid down a link from Mottama to [[Mawlamyaing]] and another city in the south [[Ye, Mon State|Ye]].

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{Cite journal |title=Rajadhirat's Mask of Command: Military Leadership in Burma (c. 1384–1421) |author=Jon Ferquest |pages=7–8 |journal=SBBR |volume=4 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2006}}
*{{cite book |last=Harvey |first=G. E. |title=History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 |publisher=Frank Cass & Co. Ltd |year=1925 |location=London}}
*{{cite book |last=Myint-U |first=Thant |title=The River of Lost Footsteps—Histories of Burma |year=2006 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-16342-6}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Bagan]]|as=Capital of Bagan Empire}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Capital of Burma|Capital of Martaban Kingdom]]|years=30 January 1287 – {{circa}} February 1364}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Donwun]]}}
{{s-end}}

[[Category:Populated places in Mon State]]
[[Category:Old Cities of Mon people]]

Mottama - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article