Meitei with Water 3

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Sanamahi-Pakhangba
A living relationship of the Meitei with Water
- Part 3 -

By: Debabrata Roy Laifungbam & Anna Pinto *

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.

As a symbol of the great mother Leimarel, an earthen pot filled with water and covered with fine sacred muslin is placed at the second third of the length of the Meitei longhouse, at the main support pillar.

Not only is water a sacred symbol to the Meitei as a core element in every ritual from the domestic and social to the greater public festivals, but water bodies themselves are held to be the manifestation of deities.

Thus, to the Meitei, the Loktak is not merely a sacred lake, but the embodiment of the goddess (lairembi) Loktak herself.

So too are the various waterways, such as the Iril or the Nambol.

Natural conjunctions of hills and water bodies are held to be particularly sacred and the traditions require the complete protection of flora and fauna in such spots. Even minor harvesting of produce is strictly taboo, except for ritual or specially sanctioned medicinal purposes.

The ancient waterways and dykes of the Imphal valley served many important purposes in addition to land reclamation and water management processes. Up until less than a hundred years ago it was possible to cross the valley, foothills to foothills, north to south, by water.

Considerable cultural and social interaction between clans and tribes otherwise separated by extensive, inconvenient wetlands – which are even more difficult to negotiate in the long wet seasons – was fostered by this transport system.

The importance of this system is marked by the annual boat festival, Heikru hidomba, held in the moat encircling the one square mile of the Kangla fort.

This is the most sacred site of the Meitei people, and the seat of many of its shrines and traditional governance institutions, the heart of the water channels network.

The ceremony of the boat race dates from the 9th century and is held towards the end of the rainy season, when the waterways are at their highest. There is an ancient treatise on boat building, including the construction of ceremonial boats, which deals not only with the craft, but also with the art of boat building and navigation.

In times of drought the chiefs of the Meitei and Angom clans are required to perform rituals from sacred ceremonial boats in order to propitiate the deities responsible for rain. Depending on the severity of the drought, various ceremonies of different elaborateness are performed in and with regard to the ceremonial boats, to invoke adequate rain.

Water plays an important role in the humbler rituals of day-to-day life as well.

A typical village of Manipur
Picture Courtesy: RKCS Art Gallery

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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