[note 4] Born near Pegu, he was educated at a local Buddhist monastery, and initially planned to become an ordained monk.
Indeed, he was already a samanera (novice monk) when he left the order to marry a daughter of a local official, Ma Ta-Shauk.
Ta-Shauk in his official capacity often had to travel to the capital Pagan (Bagan), and wanted his son-in-law to join the service.
[note 5] Initially, Akhamaman repeatedly put off joining the service for the first few years until his father-in-law finally forced him to.
Though it was a minor appointment—Pegu was still a small town at the time—he nonetheless managed to become the key Pagan official at Pegu in the following years.
By leveraging his father-in-law's extensive network in the region, he came to be responsible for not only collecting taxes but also settling trade disputes.
[2] By the mid-1280s, when Pagan was fighting a losing war against the Mongol invaders, Akhamaman had emerged as the main political and civic leader of Pegu.
When the king called for support from his nominal vassals, Akhamaman and the Pegu leadership saw no reason to respond.
But later that night, the Pagan general and the staff died from eating the poisoned dried game meat offered to them by Akhamaman's men.