1. The forgotten sacred texts of Meetei

 THE FORGOTTEN SACRED TEXTS OF MEETEI

Who are Meetei? Do we know our identity? 

    I won’t be wrong to say that most people will fail to answer this.

    I am not against any religion. I respect the faith of all communities and I also regard the rights and traditions of all religion. However, when we talk about Meetei, it is very unfortunate that most of us Kangleicha suppress our own identity. We also perform a lot of our religious rituals and rites by using another language (i.e, Sanskrit) discarding our own Mother tongue. Cultural heritage provides a sense of unity and belonging within a group. It helps us to better understand previous generations and the history we come from. It also gives a sense of personal identity. Morals taught to us by our ancestors are priceless.

    In my humble opinion it is important that we keep in tune with our roots and stay in touch with our culture and traditions. Thankfully our ancestors carefully and meticulously worked to record our practices in volumes of text we call puya. 

Puya

What is Puya?

    Puya are pure handwritten recorded scriptures of the Kangleicha (people of Kangleipak, currently known as Manipur which were written thousands of years before Christ. In Puya, pu means ‘our ancestors’ and ya stands for yathang or ‘advice’. So Puya means our ancestors’ advice. It is also said to mean yanaba (agreement) between the Kangleipak Maichous (philosophers of Kangleipak), Eningthou (our King) and the Kangleicha. The written documents are about the origin of the universe (‘Hung-Hung ki Eewai Eenin’ which is known as the Big Bang theory in the west), geographical features, astrology, cosmology, genealogy, predictions, administrations, treatment, rituals, traditional lore, etc.

Script

    The script used in writing puya is known as Meetei Mayek. It originally consists of 18 letters or Eyek. Presently we are using 27 letters in which 9 were added later from Bengali origin. Therefore, every pre-Hindu puya will be written only using the 18 alphabets from Eyek. So, the puya written using 27 letters are fabrication puya.

Journey of Puya

    The Meetei also had the tradition of maintaining genealogical records of each sagei(sub-clan).It was the responsibilities of the  sagei piba (sub-clan head) to maintain such records. One of the important puya, "Wakoklon Heelen Thilel Salai Ama-Ilon Pukok" was written at around 1500BC during the reign of Eningthou Mungyangpa (our king Mungyangpa) and the puya which we have now is the copy of the original puya copied by Angom Chaopa during the reign of King Pamheiba (later called Garbaniwaz).

Puya mei thaba

    One of the most unfortunate events in the history of Kangleipak occurred during the reign of the first Hindu king, Pamheiba (Garbaniwaz). During his reign, a Hindu preacher called Santidas Adhikari (also known as Santidas Gosai) from Sylhet (now in Bangladesh) brainwashed the king and converted Pamheiba to Vaishnavism. He then forced the Meetei to adopt Vaishnavism. He ordered his royal subjects to confiscate all the sacred puya and to give the death penalty to any who tried to hide or protect them and as a result many people were killed. The confiscated puya were gathered in a pile before Kangla Utra and burnt to ashes on 23^rd Wakching (winter), 1729. This event is remembered as ‘Puya Mei Thaba’ or ‘The burning of puya’. On this tragic occasion, around 120 manuscripts were flamed and this became the dividing line between the old and the new puya. However, some of the manuscripts were kept hidden in far off villages and by those who lived in the hills for fear of royal punishment. It is thanks to the Chingmi (people who lived in the hills) who contributed a lot in preserving the surviving copies of the sacred texts. Alongwith the Meetei who hid and protected their puya, they also played a vital role in protecting the books from the King’s men. Now some of the hidden puya have been recovered and among them is ‘Wakoklol Heelel Thilel Salai Ama-Ilon Pukok’ puya which is also one of the most important puya. Some of other important puya are Watchetlon Pathup, Sanamahi Laihui, Ponpilang, Numit Kappa and many more.

    In conclusion, puya are vital to the survival and preservation of our culture and it very important to preserve the historical manuscripts. It contains many important information and it is our responsibility to preserve these valuable advices and know our identity.    

- Nongthombam Roni Chanu

Kangleipak-na-Yaiphare!