Sanda Thudhamma came to power in 1652 after orchestrating the murder of his predecessor, King Narapawara, and his reign marks one of the more turbulent stretches in Arakanese history — a period of Mughal pressure from the west and internal dynastic violence that made stable coinage production intermittent at best. The tankah denomination itself reflects Arakan's long monetary entanglement with the Bengal Sultanate, whose currency conventions Arakanese kings had adopted centuries earlier despite the kingdom's Theravada Buddhist identity.
Sanda Thudhamma came to power in 1652 after orchestrating the murder of his predecessor, King Narapawara, and his reign marks one of the more turbulent stretches in Arakanese history — a period of Mughal pressure from the west and internal dynastic violence that made stable coinage production intermittent at best. The tankah denomination itself reflects Arakan's long monetary entanglement with the Bengal Sultanate, whose currency conventions Arakanese kings had adopted centuries earlier despite the kingdom's Theravada Buddhist identity.