Meitei with Water 1

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Sanamahi-Pakhangba
A living relationship of the Meitei with Water
- Part 1 -

By: Debabrata Roy Laifungbam & Anna Pinto *

Nong-Goubi! Nong-Goubi!
Saari Kambong
Tuirel Leinaase

(Nong-goubi! Nong-goubi!
Engrossed in house-keeping,
come let’s make our water-way.)

The ancient rhyme and folk-story reminds the Meitei of Manipur, India, of the Nong-Goubi ('rain-thirsty bird' or crow-pheasant) – a totem bird of the Meitei Nation (Manipur) – who was too busy looking after her children to take part when all the animals, birds and people were working to maintain and clean the ancient waterways (tuirel, khong, khongbaan) and dykes (torbaan) system.

These made human habitation and agriculture possible in the Manipur or Imphal valley – the ancestral lands of the Meitei, occupying a central watershed in the Indo-Burma region. In the story, Nong-Goubi was punished and prohibited from using the water and had to wait for the rains each year.

The 2000 square km. Imphal valley, originally a lake fed by numerous rivers from the encircling hills, is drained by a single river, the Imphal river, to the South of the valley.

Over a period of time, according to the oral histories of the Meitei, the valley partially dried itself out and was settled permanently by people of the surrounding hills, who later evolved into the Meitei people.

Over a period of decades, settlers then proceeded to harness the waters of the valley, channelling the major rivers into more permanent courses, deepening the permanent courses of the water channels and constructing massive earthwork dykes.

The subject is dealt with comprehensively in an ancient treatise called tutenglon (the science of waterways management).

Some lands were reclaimed as permanent dry land for agriculture and habitation, some were left open to seasonal flooding so as to facilitate wet rice agriculture, and some areas retained as pat or reservoirs of water, with the capacity to absorb the annual monsoon floods and conserve the source of water through the dry months.

Loktak-pat
Photo Courtesy: Jinendra Maibam

The greatest such reservoir is the Loktak-pat to the South of the valley, from which the Imphal River drains the entire valley. This is now almost the only such wetland left, though there were more than two hundred recognized and named wetlands in oral and written history.

The Imphal valley is therefore not merely a natural feature of great environmental importance but one of the greatest artifacts of the Meitei nation.

Water is not only an everyday preoccupation of the Meitei. It is a central element of the Sanamahi Pakhangba ancestral belief system, that the Meitei have been practicing for millennia.

The belief is based on ancestor worship with strong elements of animism. Sanamahi and Pakhangba were brothers, ancestral deities of the Meitei.

Together and individually, these two ancestors occupy the supreme male positions in the Meitei pantheon along with Ima Leimarel, Yumjao Lairembi, Panthoibi, Phouoibi, Emoinu (Chahong Ngahongbi, the munificent and bountiful) and other female ancestors.

Pakhangba is revered by the Meitei because of his political and social significance, particularly for the development of the Meitei as a nation of several different tribes towards the end of the first millennium, according to the estimates made using the western calendar system.

The first chiefs of the Meitei, called Meidingu, were named Pakhangba (as a title).

The first Pakhangba, also known as Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (the Dragon or Serpent) is believed to take two forms, one divine and one human.

The human form had significance in the political history of the Meitei nation, in the making of treaties, agreements, and alliances between the many indigenous tribes of the region.

The divine form is significant to the spiritual life of the Meitei as individuals and as a society.

Pakhangba in its divine form is a water serpent or a dragon. His element is water. The link between water and important ancestors who presided over political, social and religious matters, is significant.

To be continued ...

* Debabrata Roy Laifungbam & Anna Pinto jointly wrote this article.

Debabrata Roy Laifungbam is Director of Health Development and Human Rights at the Centre for Organization, Research and Education (CORE), Manipur, India. He coordinates various cross-sectoral research projects on public health, environment, human rights and gender and has participated in several international meetings to advocate ethnic minority rights.

Anna Pinto is Director of the Women and Children division at CORE. She is actively involved in the advocacy of Indigenous Women’s and Children’s Rights.

CORE (Website here ) can be contacted at coreloisanglen(at)gmail(dot)com . This article was presented by Hanjabam Shukhdeba, a PHD Scholar from TISS - hanjabam(at)gmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on January 30th, 2008.

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