Meitei literature

Meitei literature or Meetei literature is the literature written in the Meitei language. The presence of writing among the Meiteis is assumed to go back to the Kangleipak state under king Loiyumba in the early 12th century.[1] The Meitei script is a Brahmic abugida. It is known only from the Puya manuscripts discovered in the first half of the 20th century. Manuscripts of the 18th and 19th century used the Bengali alphabet. The existence of the Meitei script in the 15th century hinges on the authenticity of an inscription dated to the reign of Senbi Kiyamba.[2]

Indian literature

Puyas
Main article: Puya (Meitei texts)

Meitei Puya manuscripts have been discovered by scholars, beginning in the 1930s.[3][4] These are chronicles, and evidence that Hindus arrived from the Indian subcontinent with royal marriages at least by the 14th century, and in centuries thereafter, from what is now modern Assam, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Dravidian kingdoms, and other regions.[4] Another manuscript suggests that Muslims arrived in Manipur in the 17th century, from what is now Bangladesh, during the reign of Meidingu Khagemba.[4] Meitei literature documents the persistent and devastating Manipur-Burma wars.[5]

Suppression of Meitei Literature

After the adoption of Hinduism as state religion under Gharib Nawaz (1717), it appears that the Puyas were "burnt completely" at Kangla Uttra under royal orders, in either 1729[6] or in 1732.[7]

The Puya manuscripts discovered in the 20th century at best have a tenuous connection with the texts burned under Gharib Nawaz.[7] Like the Hindu and Jain Puranas, the extant Puyas contain cosmology, genealogies of gods and goddesses, and royal chronicles.[7]

Epic poetry

The Numit Kappa ("Shooting the Sun") is a mythological text in narrative verse. It was published in English translation by T.C. Hodson (1908).[8] A translation into modern Meitei was published in 1908.[9]

Ougri (also known as Leiroi Ngongloi Eshei) is a poem written in archaic Meitei.[10]

Khamba Thoibi is regarded as the greatest epic poetry in Meitei literature. The work is composed by Hijam Anganghal of Samurou.

Chronicles

The Nigthourol Shingkak is a work written under Gharib Nawaz, written in the mode of "predictions" made during the rule of Khagemba (r. 1597-1652) and thus foretelling the birth and reign of Gharib Nawaz and his religious reforms. The Cheitharol Kumbaba or "Royal Chronicle" is a text written down in the early 19th century, under Jai Singh, the puppet king installed after the Burmese invasion, purportedly based on an older copy which was no longer available. It contains day-to-day transactions and occurrences the state.[11]

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See also

References
  1. Naorem Sanajaoba, Manipur Treaties and Documents-Vol I,1993, New Delhi. Book I: "Twelfth Century Meetei Constitution To Pemberton Report".
  2. According to K.B. Singh, The Meiteis of Manipur (1989 [1962]), p. 157, an archaic form of the script had developed by the 11th century, and it was in use until the early 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali script. By contrast, O.Tomba, The Need to rewrite Manipuri History, Imphal, 1993, claims that the script is a development of c. 1930, with all supposedly older documents being deliberate forgeries (Frans Welman, Out of Isolation – Exploring a Forgotten World (2011), 468f.)
  3. FS Downs (1979). Indian Church History Review: Missionaries and Manuscripts. 13. Church History Association. pp. 159–163, 167–168.
  4. Naorem Sanajaoba (1988). Manipur, Past and Present: The Heritage and Ordeals of a Civilization. Mittal Publications. pp. 12–14. ISBN 978-81-7099-853-2.
  5. Naorem Sanajaoba (1988). Manipur, Past and Present: The Heritage and Ordeals of a Civilization. Mittal Publications. pp. 3–6, 11–12, 15–18. ISBN 978-81-7099-853-2.
  6. Singha, Komol (2012). "Nexus between Conflict and Development in India: A Case of Manipur" (PDF). International Journal of Humanities and Applied Sciences. 1 (5): 142–143. Retrieved 18 June 2015. Further, as an effort to popularise Hinduism and to make it as a state religion, on a full moon day of October (Wakching in Meitei), in 1729 AD, he collected all the Holy books (Puya) related to Sanna-Mahi religion and burnt them completely, devastated the ancient Meitei scriptures and cultural history.
  7. Soibam Birajit (2014). Meeyamgi Kholao: Sprout of Consciousness. ARECOM Publishers. pp. 120–121. GGKEY:3Z4QYHH8K7K.
  8. T.C. Hodson, The Meitheis, 1908, London. Appendix II, page 180.
  9. Chanam Hemchandra, Numit Kappa, translated and rendered into modern Meeteilon, 2008, Imphal, Manipur.
  10. Ningthoujongjam Khelchandra, History of Ancient Manipuri Literature, Pub-Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, 1969.
  11. "The manuscripts collected by W. Yumjao Singh consist of literary, historical, astronomical, astrological and miscellaneous other works of which mention may be made of Cheitharon Kumbaba, the Ningthourol Shingkak, the Poireiton Khunthokpa, Dharani Samhita, Srimat Bhagabat. The Cheitharol Kumbaba or the royal chronicle has been the most valuable for historical investigations, as it professes to record all the important daily transactions and occurrences of the State.... By orders of Jai Singh this book was rewritten as the former copy was no more available then". "The Nigthourol Shingkak is a work written in the way of prediction. It professes to predict all important events that would happen from the time of Khagemba downward. It, therefore, professes to be a work of the early 17th century. It is an anonymous work, and in this book, we see for the first time Gharib Niwaz's having had some Naga connection in his childhood." Jyotirmoy Roy, History Of Manipur, 1958, p. 8.
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