Past incident must not affect the unity
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 14, 2012 -

It was the most unfortunate incident in the history of Manipur (the then Kangleipak) – the burning of most of the PUYAs (ancient manuscripts) which recorded information, findings, research works of religious, traditional, cultural, social, astrological, philosophical aspects.

It was in the year 1729 AD when Hindu scholar Shantidas Goshai instigated the then king of Manipur Maharaja Garibaniwaj to collect all the Puyas from their custodians and burn them in front of the Kangla Utra Shanglen.

The king who had already adopted the Hindu religion through the scholar then ordered the people of Kangleipak to bring up all the Puyas they have to be burnt later on the 23rd day of Wakching. More than 700 Puyas on different aspects of the sociology, economy, religion, philosophy and many intellectual findings which very much include the history of Kanglei scripts, numerals, astrology, cosmology and many more were burnt in the incident.

The Miyatta Singkak Puya managed to record some 111 names of Puyas which were burnt by the order of the King Garibniwaj (Pamheiba).

With the burning of the Puyas, the advent of Hinduism began to rise manifold in the state with threats from the King who strictly ordered his subjects to follow the Hindu religion.

It was said that custodians of the Puyas who dearly loved them copied the texts of many Puyas and stored them secretly and leaving some riddles before submitting the original Puyas to the King. Many orginal Puyas were also hidden by their custodians for the future of Manipur.

It was the riddles which the custodians left which led to the discovery of the lost Puyas today.

One of the popular riddle is the KE KEKU MOILANG KEKU NACHA NAMPA SANGAI NAMPA YOTKI POLOL LAIKI SAMCHET. It was the riddle which led to the discovery of WAKOKLON THILEL SALAI AMAILON PUKOK the most important Puya recording the history of the Kanglei Scripts, Numerals, Cosmology, the formation of Earth and the formation of Kangleipak (now Manipur).

As much as 1200 original manuscripts (Puyas) written in the original 18 Kanglei alphabets, either copied before burning or either ancient ones, have been recovered so far.

If the forefathers of Manipur did not take the risk of copying or hiding the Puyas, then it would be an impossible task for the state to define the original alphabets of the state which was defined in 1980 by the Meetei Mayek Expert Committee by studying and comparing many of the Puyas written in the 18 alphabets and others.

Keeping aside this, it is a welcome step initiated by the International Observation Committee of Puya Mei Thaba to observe the 283rd anniversary of the incident in such a grand scale to create awareness of the incident and at the same time bring communal harmony among the different communities residing in the state since times immemorial.

Clashes and differences in the theories and findings of the many scholars who do research in the field and who have dedicated themselves in hunting the lost treasures of the Manipur society always surfaced up in the state, be it in term of scripts, religion, name of the Meetei race or many more. Even though many have been resolved by producing, studying and comparing proper documents, many such differences are still exist today who are looking might come to the fore at any moment.

While such clashes or debates make a bad impression to the outsiders as well as the people, they are good in the other sense since such debates and clashes brings out the lost truth about the history of the state.

For those who feel disgusted about these debates or clashes which rose up from time to time, here is a piece of advice that the root for such clashes or debates is the burning of the Puyas by the order of the King Pamheiba on the behest of Hindu scholar Shantidas Goshai.

Only if he had not asked the King to burn the Puyas the clashes which we witnessed today would have not come up. One more thing we should keep in our mind is that we should never blame the people of the state who follow Hinduism since they have nothing to do with the burning of Puya and the introduction of Hinduism in the then Kangleipak.

While it is a good step to remember the incident, a more important task is lying in front of us is to trace back the missing Puyas, unite those who are dedicated in bringing up the lost culture, traditions and religious values to a single platform and as well as to reunite the different communities in the state for a strong and united Manipur.

Let's keep in mind that studying the past is important for human development, but we should never make it an issue to bring disunity and disharmony in today's society.