Manipur in Mahabharat

MahaBharat
Thought of copy pasting these write-ups, then thought againts plagiarism and I said to myself, just link them up.

Here is an account of the origin of Manipur and About Mahabharat and Manipur. I personally have nothing much to comment on this as this is a something much debated about and without proper knowledge I didn't want to write. Well let me at least start

In the Mahabharata, Manipur ( 'Mani' -Jewel, 'Pur'- City or place ), the remote North-Eastern State of India - is mentioned as the meeting place of Arjuna, the third pandava and Chitrangada, the crown Princess of Manipur. Most orthodox Bishnupriya Manipuris and Meiteis believe that the name bear itself to the proof of the existence of Vedic civilization from the pre-historic time as the Jaimini Mahabharata mentions clearly 'Manipur', 'Bishnupur' etc. Claiming to be the Kshatriyas, they trace their ancestry with the Arjuna-Chitrangada-Babhrubahana episode of the epic Mahabharata. But there is reasonable doubt whether the present Manipur is that of the Mahabharata. Scholars have different opinions as well as views regarding the exact location of the Manipur mentioned in Mahabharata with the present state of North-East India.

The Arjuna and Chitrangada Story,
In the Mahabharata, and Dharani Sanghita, Manipur is mentioned as the meeting place of Arjuna, the third pandava and Chitrangada, the crown Princess of Manipur. Prachin Manipurer Itihas by Shri Mahendra kumar Singh States that this place, with a bay like Lake Logtak in the centre surrounded by hill -bounded plain land, was the kingdom of Chitra Bahana, a Gandharva king as par the epic Mahabharata. According to Mahabharata, his daughter Chitrangada( or Chitranggoda) attracted to Arjuna from hastinapura and got herself married to him. Babhrubahana is the son of Chitrangada, belonged to Kshatrya of Chandra Bangsa, ruled Manipur after Chitrabahana.
Read More about the origin of Manipur and of Arjuna in Manipur

Lai Haraoba

The Picture below is of a dance called the maibi dance during a Pre-Hindu era festival of Manipur called Lai Haraoba. The exact translation of this would Merriment of the Gods, or rather God's festival. Note that the Pre Hindu era cultures and Hinduism mixes perfectly well. One attribute to the perfectionsm of Manipuris. We tend to take the best of both worlds. Without embracing the ugly casteism and class discrimination of the Hindu religion, we have only taken the beauty of the Shradha and Love of hindusim and have perfected it without any Unreasonable baggages. I shall write more about the Pre-Hindu era celebrations after I learnt everythin about it. I will need a little research.



The dress that the men are wearing is what I described in my article on dresses of Manipur.

To the right is a picture of Raas Leela,
another example of perfect art form.
Read About Raas Leela



Read more about the culture of Manipur

Please do take the pain to go through the previous posts. I have put in my heart into writing them, so You know about the people called Manipuris and a Place called Manipur, The land of Jewels.

Previous posts

Introductory post on Manipur
People of Manipur
Women of Manipur
Dresses of Manipur
Ceremonies of Manipur

My regular blog at Anthonysmirror

Ceremonies of Manipur

Manipur is a land of many things and when I think of all the many things that makes up a Manipuri, I can't help thinking about the Ceremonies that go on all year long. Ceremonies are a part and parcel of a Manipuri's life. I still remember the joys I had experienced as a child when all the relatives would come to our house for a never ending plethora of ceremonies... The first ceremony, along a Manipri's life cycle, is held on the fith day of a child's birth. It is called the Swasti Puja.

Swasti Puja: I don't know what it signifies, but it certainly is a very sweet way of welcoming a new born to thw world. It is like the first birthday of a child, where all friends and relatives comes to have a dekko at the child and offers the child a Daan. My mom still remembers the uncle, a good friend of father's who dropped a 50 rupee note on my swati day, and those days 50 bucks would at least buy 2000 bucks worth of things today. Of course I was his favorite nephew for asong as I was a Kid, and yes, the amount signifies how special a child is to the person. No, its doesn't mean a rich uncle will be more special, but a poor uncle going out of his way to offer a daan of 50 rupees then would mean a lot of things. Attaching money to love seems a little out of taste today, but it is a sweet tradition nonetheless, its a diffrent matter that one gets invited to a swasti pooja too ofetn and has to shell out 500 bucks each time. Social activists today are quite vocal against the monetary gifts. The guests of course are dined.

Next ceremony in one's Life Cycle is the chagumba( I don't know how to spell it), maybe Chaumba. It is the ceremony of feeding a child his/her first solid food. I believe, the Bengalis also have a similar tradition. Learnt about it when I read's Jhumpa Lahiri's Namesake. It was a striking similarity though, maybe the whole ceremony was a Bengali legacy, a sweet legacy nonetheless. The similarity was in the ceremonial tradition of letting the baby choose between pen, money, soil and other stuff which would theoretically decide where the future of the Child lie. But I believe it could be changed litle bit today, we could place a stethoscope, a laptop and the money. Today, one becomes either a doctor, computer engineer or an MBA anyway.

The next ceremony is called the Naa-hutpa, or ear pierching. Yes, we do have ear pierchings. I am talking about Men. So, when you see a Meetei Guy next time with a small hole in the earlobe, don't think he is cool or too fashion conscious. It is just a tradition thrust upon us when we cannot say yes or No. Of course, once the boy passes puberty and becomes conscious of his Manhood, the earrings are removed. I still have pictures with my earrings on, I have it back home so I can't post it now. This ceremony is conducted with much fanfare with Friends and relatives from all over and a grand feast to celebrate, we don't accept gifts though an over enthusiastic uncle or aunt slips a 100 rupee note into the kids hand much to his surprise, a pleasant surprise I presume. oh, there has to be a grand feast on every occasion. Will save grand feast, we call it Utsav for the last. And the child's head is clean shaven and goes through a ritual of cleansing. A very beautiful sight.

Next to Nahutpa would be the Lagun thangba or lagun ceremony. Every Manipuri Hindu wears the Lagun or the holy thread. Of course we keep it hidden, we consider it uncool to be to religious. We wear it or the customery one month after the ceremony and then keep it inside our suitcases. Manipuri Brahmins wear it all their lives. Lagun cremony is done anytime after a Male child reaches the age of 15. I had mine when I was 17, where I had to act as if I was going away as a brahmachari and my mom and her friedns and my aunts would act like they will stop me from going. The boy's head will be again clean shaven. Oh, so my head have been shaved clean at least twice and have undergo the same everytime a family member expires. So, the boy's head will be shaven clean and dones safrone dhoti and upper cloth. I went around like a begging monk, and they would fill my jhola with rice, pulses, money gold and silver. I will practice brahmachrihood for 7 days after wich I would be certified to get married.

Next ceremony would be marriage, there might be a House Warming ceremony called the Yum Sangaba, if the person ever builds a House(we still dont have matchbox house system yet) and the ceremonial cycle completes after one expires on the fourtheenth day of one's expiry when we perform the shrad. It doesn't stop there. For one whole year, we have a grand feast every month and then every death anniversary afterwards. The ceremony never ends in The land of jewels.... and add to it the festivals that come in between.

PS: By the way yesterday was Ningol Chakouba. While bhaidhooj was celebrated in western part of India. Ningol Chakouba could be called the most Important festival in Manipur. It is most like raksha bandhan, but only for the Married Women- Ningol, chakouba mean an invitation to a feast. On this day, married women come to their parental abode for a fun filled day of a grand feast and gifts from the parents and brothers. It is a festival every Manipuri keeps close to the heart, the day starting with cleaning of varieties of fishes and fish delicacies of all kinds cooked for the Ningols. I miss ningol Chakouba when all my aunts would come, and all the delicacies. Especially, the fresh water fish cooked lie kheema.... shall post the recipe at anthonyskitchen soon ..
Do read about the people fo manipur from previous posts

There seem to be an avian scare in manipur.
Fearing a possible outbreak of Bird flu in Manipur following the death of a
red legged falcon at Barak in Tamenglong on November 1, the administration has
launched a campaign to make people aware of the deadly disease.
''There is
every possibility of the deadly avian influenza reaching the eastern region of
India since birds are migratory in nature,'' veterinary officials here
said

Read more

People of Manipur-III

More on people of Manipur.
How we Dress? Traditionally.

Meetei Women have quite a beautiful array of dresses, some of which are sought after bypeople who have seen them. I can't but have a sense of pride, and a grin when I see that a traditional Manipuri dress is worn by a newscaster or some TV personality. Moirang Phi is one type of dress I can remember, but I don't know the names of the others.It is worn as a saree by any Indians who have had the good fortune of having come across the same, during those North Eastern festivals or at the Delhi haat. Maybe a generous Friend.This hand woven, and hand crafted clothes doesn't come too cheap either. I have borrowed some of it from kangla Online. This are not everything or the best that we have but the best that these pretty Meetei Girls could manage at Pune where they were students.



Traditionally, the ladies wear a wrap around, not very much unlike a Sarong, legacy of out asian lineage or maybe the invasions. The wrap arounds are called Phanek. These are still Hand woven I believe. There are plain phanek that one wear casually, and then there are Phanek that are worn when we "go out", called Mayek Naibi. Whereas the plain ones, are as the name suggest of plain colours like Red, gren, Blue, maroon etc, the Mayek Naibi are with Horizontal stripes. But there are no other design, floral or otherwise on the main body of the phanek. But there is a strip or edge about 3 inches wide which carries beautiful design.

The Phanek is usually worn with a blouse and a Upper cloth which is worn like a mini saree today. But traditionally, I believe it was worn without the blouse, the Phanek worn above the breast like a cocktail dress, uper body covered with the same Uppercloth folded across the shoulder like in the picture. It is the upper cloth which is much in demand by Ladies elsewhere, who had the good fortune of having set her eyes on it. I have met ladies who had inquired about the manipuri saree with the mandir edge, more than once too often( mandir or temble edge is a popular design). Longer version of this cloth could be worn as a saree, much like Manipuri ladies cut sarees into half to wear with the Phanek. Phanek is also a beautiful dress, but its not much liked to be worn by non-manipuri, though admired. But then its maybe because, it would be a paradigm shift in terms of dressing. The phanek is not like any dress worn by the mainland Indians. But I have seen some Punjabee or Bengali Lady guests carrying if off beautifully during functions held in manipur. A Mayek Naibi and a Moirang Phi makes quite a soothing sight.


Men are not quite lucky, we have to make do with The normal trouser shirt or a jeans and Tee. The Tuxedo Imperialism. But of course it is not that we don't have traditional Dress. But truely traditional dress are only to be seen during our traditional Festivals where people dress up for the gods, girls in the same Mayek naibi and Resam (velvette) blouse, Men also with Velvete blouse and a type of Loin cloth with poted designs like a leopard, worn like a dhoti. But then, this cloths are never worn outside this festivals and Mythological Dramas. The more common traditional dress, worn during functions, weddings, Shradh ceremonies and other celbrations would be white Dhoti Kurta. yes, it is still very common even today. One doesn't got to a Wedding or a Shradh ceremony without the Dhoti Kurta, even today. I don't know where we picked up the tradition but, a groom wears a turban as well on his wedding he bride of course is attired in the most uncommon of dress called a Poloi. It is a dress that is has to be sewn unto the body of the bride. A cylindrical ensemble, decorated with beads and small knick knacks and the bride can't help looking like a doll, a very pretty doll indeed. The same dress is worn for the Ras Leela, the famous manipuri dance. I shall describe the Manipuri Wedding in another post.



This led me to another story. I just can't stop when I start writing if it is a topic close to my heart. Writing about the wedding dress make me remember my Lagun ceremony, and I realised that Ceremonies of manipur would make a very long post. Or, maybe I shall write some more. Next topic. Uploading it just. I had written it already.

Don't forget to read about people of Manipur-I and People of Manipur-II from previous posts.

My regular Post at Anthonysmirror

The raas Leela Picture have been borrowed from BobbyMaisnam
The wedding picture from Sanalaibak and the Women in traditional from Kanglaonline
Read more about Ras Leela