The Life Impulses Hidden in our Manipuri Folktales

Omila Thounaojam *

Thambannu and Kabui Keioiba - 'Funga Wari - Prize winning entries in painting competition by IMPFO' :: Pix - Dr Krishnananda Samurailatpam

The range of immortal folktales like Hanubi Hanuba Pan Thaba, Pebet, Sandrembi-Cheishra, Lai Khutsangbi, Kabukei-oiba, Tapta, Emoinu carry with them the best's of life-philosophies. Ceaselessly they continue to live.

Not just their presences could be felt but their significances in leading a better and meaningful life are well understood in today's context.

The more we are isolated from an ideal way of living life owing to the contemporary socio-political and cultural changes, the more the need to hold on to the precious elements of the "Old World" increases. The demand for morality has heightened up and the necessity to maintain order in our midst too.

In this global society hugely affected by the urgent calls to conform to the fastest growing schemes developed by men of science and technology, somehow our soul greatly feels the need for an impulse that would quench the thirst that we feel.

It won't be wrong to claim here that we need a powerful rope to tie our souls intact to our physical selves. Or else we will miss a crucial part of our identity that is intensely threatened by a series of foreign forces before us.

There is a playful relationship that exists between us, our world and some of the selected features of our traditional patterns. It has become mandatory now to try and understand it.

We are nearing a phase of human existence wherein, we seem like heading forward in life and yet underneath every system that binds us, we remain just like loose threads. Fragments of us and our personalities are in search for a true meaning of progress.

The definition of a word and its meaning must be digested properly or else we will remain educated and yet hollow to the core for, we haven't learnt anything fruitful so far. The essence of life must be tapped properly.

What could be a better option than to realize and appreciate all at once, the beauty of our folktales?

Whether it is about the entertaining "Pebet" that functions like a rich fable or the tremendously dynamic tale of the "Hanubi Hanuba Pan Thaba" or the message filled with glorifying the strength of wisdom as conveyed by the glorious narrative of goddess "Emoinu".... the notion of the "good vs. evil" with the good ones always being rewarded as could be inferred through "Sandrembi-Cheishra" ... the experimental form of horror-inflicted "lai-khutsangbi" and "Tapta" tales that are narrative devices to practically guard the children against the notion of "evil" and "dark forces" ... the concept of a hybrid very well represented and manifested in "Kabukei-oiba" ... all these above all tell us about "how" rich and empowered we are when it has to do with our priceless heritage of the orally woven "folk tales".

The clarion call is on and the literal deal for us is to listen to it. We are rich. It's high time that we celebrate the power of tradition that is entrusted to us by our ancestors. We must seek the benefits of knowledge that we receive from the various institutions that we rely on for bettering ourselves.

Nonetheless we must acknowledge at the same time that the oral and the written must complement each other and get along. Both the resources will make a complete whole from the parts.

Let's count on the forces of modernization along with this process of regeneration and revival by truly relying on our traditional life impulses for completing our lives.