It was also during this period that the first vipassana meditation teachers began to popularize the widespread practice of Buddhist meditation. This included figures like the monks Waya-zawta and Medawi (1728–1816). Waya-zawta flourished during the reign of Mahadhammayaza (1733-1752) and promised his followers could reach sotapanna through anagami levels of awakening under him. Medawi was the first author of Burmese language vipassana meditation manuals (completing over thirty of these), focusing on the three marks of existence as they pertain to the five aggregates. Medawi promoted meditation as the way to prevent the decline of the Buddha's religion. He held that the Buddha's teaching was in decline only because people were not practicing it, and not, as others believed, because they lived in degenerate times.