Another element is the maintenance of water biodiversity and prosperity through worship. The indigenous ngamu, a small fish, is very significant to the Meitei. The ngamu is very sensitive to unclean water and cannot survive in polluted waters.

Every year, the Meitei perform a ritual called Ngamu ussin sin-ba (he replacement of the ngamu), when fingerlings are released in every water body to bring prosperity to the people.

The ngamu thus symbolizes renewal and prosperity, making it an important item in the mediconutritional practices of the Meitei.

The ill and aged, expectant and new mothers, weaning infants or children who are not thriving eat this fish as a healing food since its nutritional and medicinal qualities are highly prized.

Maintaining water bodies for this food alone is therefore critical to preserving the traditional pharmacopoeia and diet of the Meitei.

The system of watercourses, earthen dykes and wetland reservoirs was maintained through a dual system of taxation and voluntary community labour.

The most important traditional tax of the Meitei was the lallup, misinterpreted by the British as a slave system and abolished.

According to this tax, every able-bodied man between 16 and 40 years of age was required to contribute 40 per cent of his annual labour to the chief. In times of war, this labour usually implied military service.

Some, particularly those who were gifted or skilled in a particular craft or art, were required to make those particular skills available.

In times of peace, the vast majority were required to contribute their time to developing and maintaining the major earthworks and de-silting the main water courses.

Youth in each locality were required by custom to volunteer their efforts annually for repairing, extending and cleaning the smaller parts of the system in their own communities.

The previously well-preserved wetlands each had their own well-known and beloved characteristics.

Loktak-pat Picture Courtesy: RK Kishore