Sanamahi-Pakhangba A living relationship of the Meitei with Water - Part 3 - |
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By: Debabrata Roy Laifungbam & Anna Pinto * |
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In every household, a place is kept sacrosanct and special for Sanamahi, the revered brother of Pakhangba.
An earthen pot filled to the brim with water from the rivers or canals is always kept in the Sanamahi kaa-chin (corner) of every home.
Potable water for the household is generally fetched every evening by the marriageable girls of the Meitei household. Since such water sources have not traditionally been distant or inaccessible, the chore is not generally considered a task of heavy labour. The young girls perform it after bathing and dressed in fresh clothes with fresh flowers in their hair. They usually go in groups, making it a semi-recreational activity. Preliminary courting between young men and women frequently takes place during this chore. Bathing itself is a social ritual, with pleasant recreational overtones, again given the proximity of good water sources. Traditionally, young women also perform this ritual in groups, typically helping each other wash their hair. The maintenance of water bodies, both ponds and streams, including canals, is also extremely important because fish is an integral element in the Meitei diet. Until a few years ago even in the capital of Imphal, the smaller canals around the households were well maintained and women's fishing nets could be seen placed in the water to catch a few fish for the next meal. In addition to the fish, a wide variety of water vegetables and insects, including rare mosses and fungi complemented the traditional diet. The traditional Meitei household was therefore comfortably selfsufficient in food, which required little effort in harvesting and none in cultivation. This wealth from the waters of the valley might have contributed to the development of the complex and sophisticated culture of the Meitei people, in this small valley which is almost inaccessible, except to the determined traveller. 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 February 09th, 2008. |
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