The Religion of Manipur- Beliefs, Rituals and Historical Development (An Old and Rare Book)

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The existing faith with which Hinduism came in contact in Manipur-a compact area lying between the Naga Chin hills and Burma-was, despite some superficial similarities with the Burmese religion, quite distinctive. It had its own gods and priests, its own rites and festivals, which preserved a religion rich in mythology and colourful in ritual. The type of Hinduism with which it came into contact was again distinctive, namely, that particular type of Bengali Vaisanavism which is associated with the School of Caitanya.

It is this meeting of two quite different and distinctive religious faiths which has been discussed in this very interesting dissertation.

Dr. Parratt has certainly made a substantial contribution to learning. She has revealed a capacity to relate her topic of research to the broader framework, both of the discipline within which it falls (viz., Indology, with special reference to Indian History, Culture and Religion) and its related disciplines (e.g., Anthropology, Ethnology, Sociology etc.)

I have found this book to be a very well-ordered piece of research, which breaks new ground in a most interesting field of study which has already drawn the attention of quite a number of scholars and specialists, but none of them has taken it up to treat the matter so systematically. It is refreshing to find that the writer is singularly free from any special bias or parti pris, although it is obvious that her sympathy is with the atmosphere, the form and spirit of present day Meithei religion as a form of Hinduism as it is practised. Evidently she has full personal knowledge of this religion with its ideologies and rituals as well as its "spiritual" value and aesthetic beauty. I note also that she agrees with me that "Manipur Hinduism gradually became a synthesis of the old Meithei religion with its Gods and Goddesses and Myths, its Legends and Traditions, its Social Customs and Usages and its Priests and Ceremonials, and of Brahmanical Hinduism with its special worship of Radha and Krishna". Incidentally I may also note one thing. From my visit to Manipur and my close contact with a number of Manipuri scholars, writers and artists, I have noted that the Manipuri people have a very estimable sense of love and pride in their own cultural milieu: they greatly love their language and are proud of it, as it has been proved by the astonishing extent as well as quality of their literature for the last few hundred years, which is remarkable for a small population of a few hundred thousands only they love their dances and their rituals, their old songs and legends which they have raised to the domain of a very high artistic expression which has been now widely accepted by the rest of India and that they have a remarkable power of assimilation of the deeper and the more beautiful aspects of Hindu thought and culture, while preserving things of artistic value in their own culture, and seeking to sublimate their old ideals to the higher domain of Hindu philosophy. One feels that in this book the writer has manifested this spirit in her presentation.

The religious life of the hill peoples of North-eastern India, even when they have comme much under the influence of Hinduism and are nominally Hindus, retains many characteristics inherited from their prehistoric ancestors. Most of these peoples have no written records going back earlier than the nineteenth century, and their earlier history and culture has to be pieced together from oral tradition, anthropological and archaeological data, and the accounts of travellers. Manipur, however, forms an exception to this generalization. The Meitei language was reduced to writing, and chronicles and religious texts were written down by the learned men of Manipur long before the other peoples of the area became literate. Thus it is possible to reconstruct the earlier history of Manipur with greater precision than that of any other area of the region. Unfortunately few people except the Manipuris themselves have bothered to master the language sufficiently to be able to read this considerable literature, and the few who have done so have been interested rather in its language than in its content. Exceptional in this respect has been the great polymath, the late Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterji who incidentally, was one of the examiners of the thesis on which this book is based), whe made a thorough study of Meitei literature and wrote something about it from the cultural and religious point of view. Few people from outside the state, however, will ever master the difficult language sufficiently to read its earlier literature, which differs considerably in vocabulary and syntax from modern spoken Meitei. Thus the future of Manipuri studies must depend very largely on the Manipuris themselves.