Sa composed many songs in various styles drawn from different traditions, wrote several plays and dramas including translated works from Thai and Javanese dramas, and brought innovations to Burmese theater. He invented the 13-string Burmese harp and introduced marionette plays to the Ava court. Sa was also an able military commander who led King Bodawpaya's annexation of Manipur in 1813. As the commander of Arakan theater under Gen. Maha Bandula in the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–1826, Sa achieved a few battlefield victories in an otherwise disastrous war for the Burmese.