| Battle of Naungyo | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41) | |||||||
 Path of retreat by Hanthawaddy forces | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Toungoo Kingdom | Hanthawaddy Kingdom | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Bayinnaung[2] Taw Maing Ye Bayathingyan |
Binnya Dala[2] Minye Aung Naing † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
10,000[3] 500 horses 50 elephants |
80,000[3] 800 horses 200 elephants | ||||||
The Battle of Naungyo (Burmese: နောင်ရိုးတိုက်ပွဲ [nàʊɰ̃jó taɪʔpwɛ́]) was a land battle fought between the armies of the Toungoo Kingdom and Hanthawaddy Kingdom during the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41) in late 1538. The battle was the most decisive Toungoo victory of the war. Toungoo armies led by Gen. Kyawhtin Nawrahta (later Bayinnaung) decisively defeated a numerically far superior and better armed force of Hanthawaddy led by Gen. Binnya Dala and Gen. Minye Aung Naing. Only a small portion of the Hanthawaddy forces made it to their intended destination–the fortified city of Prome (Pyay). A decimated Hanthawaddy was no longer in a position to retake the lost territories from Toungoo.
The battle is one of the most famous battles in Burmese history. It was after this battle that Kyawhtin Nawrahta was given the title of Bayinnaung (lit. Royal Elder Brother) by his brother-in-law King Tabinshwehti. The battle is deemed "the first characteristic touch of the great Bayinnaung"[4] who later went on to found the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia.
The term "Naungyo" is an entrenched part of Burmese lexicon. It is customary to say "နောင်ရိုး စိတ်ဓာတ်ရှိပါ" (lit. "Have Naungyo spirit") or "ဘုရင့်နောင် ဖောင်ဖျက်သလိုလုပ်" (lit. "Do as Bayinnaung destroyed the rafts") to encourage or urge someone to have a sink-or-swim mentality.[1]