In his early life, Kyansittha was a popular and successful general who led Anawrahta's major military campaigns that founded the Pagan Empire.

Kyansittha ascended to the Pagan throne in 1084 after suppressing a major Mon rebellion that killed King Saw Lu.

It was in his reign that the synthesis of Burman, Mon, Pyu and Buddhist practices into a Burmese cultural tradition began to reach a level of maturity.

A peaceful Pagan grew wealthy from agriculture and trade, and large scale temple building began in earnest.

Many of the stories given in the Burmese chronicles attributed to Kyansittha are legends, with a heavy touch of literary flourish.

According to the chronicles, Kyansittha was born to Princess Pyinsa Kalayani of Wethali and Anawrahta, then a senior prince at the court of King Sokkate.

[3] Nonetheless, the chronicles accept that he was a legal son of Anawrahta per Burmese customary law, which says a child born in wedlock is presumed to have been begotten by the husband.

[6] Moreover, according to Zata, considered the most accurate chronicle for the dates of the best-known Pagan and Ava kings,[7] Kyansittha was born on 21 July 1030, and was about 19 years older than Saw Lu.

The king gave him the title Kyansittha which means "the remaining/last standing soldier" because of the latter's knack for surviving in the battlefield.

[8] But according to historian George Coedes, it is a corruption of the Pali word, kalan cacsa, meaning "soldier-official".

[9] Kyansittha grew up in relative obscurity until Anawrahta recalled his son at a later point (likely by his early teens).

At Anawrahta's court, he was a minor prince under the shadow of his elder half-brother Saw Lu, and served as a royal cadet in the Pagan army.

According to tradition, in early 1057, the king made his teenage son one of four lead commanders in his invasion of Thaton Kingdom.

During the Burmese imperial era, only the royalty were allowed to assume a senior position in the army at an early age.

Kyansittha partook in all of Anawrahta's expeditions including one to the Nanzhao Kingdom, and in some cases (such as the Tenasserim campaign against the Khmer Empire) led them.

[11] In the early 1070s, Kyansittha was called into service to defend Pegu (Bago) against the raiders from the direction of Chiang Mai.

He finally settled at Kaungbyu (likely in the Sagaing District), and married Thanbula, niece of the head abbot of the local monastery.

Unable to blockade the fortified walls of Pagan, his army drifted north to near the present-day Ava (Inwa).

[16] According to the chronicle Zatadawbon Yazawin, Kyansittha and Yamankan fought a battle c. April 1083 (Kason of 445 ME).

However, other chronicles (Hmannan and Yazawin Thit) say he reigned only for five years, followed by an interregnum that lasted till 1084—implying that Saw Lu died in late 1082 or early 1083.

The Khmer Empire, the other Southeast Asian power, stopped raiding southern Pagan territory.

[22] The use of Burmese vernacular continued to gain strength among the populace although it was still junior to more established languages of Pyu and Mon.

The earliest evidence of a more settled Burmese script was the Myazedi inscription, dedicated to him in 1112 when the king was on his deathbed.

[23] The first ever mention of the word "Myanmar" (the literary name of the Burmans (Bamar)) appeared in the epigraph of his new palace, built between December 1101 and April 1102.

Nonetheless, historians contend that even the reformed religion of Shin Arahan, Anawrahta, Kyansittha and other Pagan kings was one still strongly influenced by Hinduism when compared to later more orthodox (18th and 19th century) standards.

Kyansittha is regarded as one of the greatest Burmese monarchs for saving the nascent Pagan Empire and making it stronger.

His continuation of Anawrahta's social, economic and religious policies transformed the kingdom to a major regional power.