His successors showed little political capacity but encouraged religion and literature.  The study of the Abhidhamma was specially flourishing in the districts of Ava and Sagaing from about 1600 to 1650 and found many illustrious exponents.  Besides works in Pali, the writers of this time produced numerous Burmese translations and paraphrases of Abhidhamma works, as well as edifying stories.

In the latter part of the seventeenth century Burma was in a disturbed condition and the Sasanavamsa says that religion was dimmed as the moon by clouds.  A national and religious revival came with the victories of Alompra (1752 onwards), but the eighteenth century also witnessed the rise of a curious and not very edifying controversy which divided the Sangha for about a hundred years and spread to Ceylon.[162] It concerned the manner in which the upper robe of a monk, consisting of a long piece of cloth, should be worn.  The old practice in Burma was to wrap this cloth round the lower body from the loins to the ankles, and draw the end from the back over the left shoulder and thence across the breast over the right shoulder so that it finally hung loose behind.  But about 1698 began the custom of walking with the right shoulder bare, that is to say letting the end of the robe fall down in front on the left side.  The Sangha became divided into two factions known as Ekamsika (one-shouldered) and Parupana (fully clad).  The bitterness of the seemingly trivial controversy was increased by the fact that the Ekamsikas could produce little scriptural warrant and appealed to late authorities or the practice in Ceylon, thus neglecting sound learning.  For the Vinaya frequently[163] prescribes that the robe is to be adjusted so as to fall over only one shoulder as a mark of special respect, which implies that it was usually worn over both shoulders.  In 1712 and again about twenty years later arbitrators were appointed by the king to hear both sides, but they had not sufficient authority or learning to give a decided opinion.  The stirring political events of 1740 and the following years naturally threw ecclesiastical quarrels into the shade but when the great Alompra had disposed of his enemies he appeared as a modern Asoka.  The court religiously observed Uposatha days and the king was popularly believed to be a Bodhisattva.[164] He was not however sound on the great question of ecclesiastical dress.  His chaplain, Atula, belonged to the Ekamsika party and the king, saying that he wished to go into the whole matter himself but had not for the moment leisure, provisionally ordered the Sangha to obey Atula’s ruling.  But some champions of the other side stood firm.  Alompra dealt leniently with them, but died during his Siamese campaign before he had time to unravel the intricacies of the Vinaya.