Unforgotten relationship of Manipur and Tai kingdoms : A historical perspective
- Part 2 -

Maheshsana Rajkumar *

In the present Myanmar context the emergence of changed historical facts necessitates the need to revisit the respective histories.

Dr Sai San Aik on the recent article covered by 'The Sangai Express' written by Maheshsana Rajkumar titled, "A need to rethink Meitei in sub-section of Chin group in Myanmar census code 402", in support of the article he strongly disagreed Meitei in the regrouping of Chin sub-section in Myanmar census code 402 by the successive Myanmar Governments.

He said Meitei cannot be a sub-section of Chin group. A well known researcher on Tai/Shan ethnic, Dr. Sai San Aik stated Meitei culture is in common with old Tai culture.

Dr. Sai San Aik on account of Chin ethnic in Myanmar writes, "CHIN word is used and understood only in Burma (Myanmar). Shan or Tai people called 'Chin' as 'Karng' (Hill Top Dwellers).

Shan people had their Feudal System of administration (recorded since AD 7/121/130 in Ta-Kong/Tagaung which is 127 miles north of present Mandalay). Kabaw valley practically means Shan valley (Shan grow rice where-ever they settled).

When Mezau/Kuki/Lushai first moved east they would not meet Bamar (Burmese) people because they were not there yet but they would meet Shan/Tai people. The Chin word is not Bamar word but it is a descendant from Shan word-Karng to Kin/Chin. Tai people pronounce Ganga River as Ganga but Bamar pronounce Ganga as 'Ginga' River. Bamar people could not pronounce Karng. So they recorded it as Chin."

Yazagyo or Rajgriha was the ancient capital of Kassay (Manipur) since 550 BCE during the reign of Sakya/Maurya ruler Dhaja Raja and is located at Kabaw Valley, in a remote area of Northwestern Myanmar/Burma. Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Phayre mentioned the names of Kabaw Valley specifically which the Burmese called the territory, west of the Chindwin, Kabaw valley, as Mau-re-ya, Mau-ringa or Mwe-yeng.

Col. GE Gerini in his book, "Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern Asia: Further India and Indo-Malay Archipelago", 1909, writes, "Mauryas belonged to Sakyan race. Every subsequent dynasty that reigned in Burma claimed descent from the Mauryas or Mayuras through the princes who founded Tagong and Old Pagan; hence the Burmese kings placed the peacock (Mayura) on their coat-of-arms, and this bird became the National emblem of the country Burma."

During the reign of Manipur King Mungyamba (r. 1562-97), Princess Sana Hekpi was given in marriage to a Shan ruler of Kabaw Valley. She was described as Kabaw Leima (Queen of Kabaw). The bride price of this princess was seven elephants.

A Map of the Burmese Empire drawn by cartographer John Wyld in 1886, a folding map of Burma based on documents from the Surveyor Generals Office of India, published after the Third Anglo-Burmese War depicted Ningthee R. (Chindwin River) on the map and the general inhabitants of Kabaw Valley written as Moitay Kubo and Mrelap Kubo.

Bob Hudson, Pamela Gutman & Win Maung (Tampawaddy) in their joint write up "Buddha's life in Konbaung period bronzes from Yazagyo", 2018, writes, "Yazagyo in Kabaw valley lies between the Upper Chindwin River and the hills which separate Burma from Manipur.

Yazagyo is on a side road from the Myanmar-India Friendship Highway, 35 kilometers north of Kalaymyo. In the latter half of the 19th century, the Kabaw Valley was becoming depopulated due to attacks by Chin tribesmen. Some villages were destroyed and others were abandoned, their residents moving to larger centers for protection."

G.E.R. Grant Brown in Burma Gazetteer Upper Chindwin District Vol.A, 1913, recorded the Yazagyo or Kale chronicle is of unknown origin, embodying this legend, is in the district office. It contains a list of princes in which Indian names give way to Shan as early as 210 B.C., when the kingdom is said to have been united by marriage with that of Mohnyin (Katha district) in the person of Saw Kan Twe, son of Kumonda Raja by the daughter of the Mohnyin prince.

Grant Brown further writes, "Of the early history of Upper Chindwin district, anything is hardly known. The northern part at least must have been for centuries under Shan domination, and at one time formed part of, or was tributary to, the Shan kingdom of Mogaung. It is unlikely that it was under Burmese rule without intermission for much more than a hundred years before the annexation.

In the south the centre of power seems to have long been at Yazagyo, now a village in the north of the Kalemyo Township. Legend has it that it was the seat of a line of Indian princes from the time of Buddha, and that its people spoke the Magadha language and were unintelligible to the tribes around them, who were described as Shan, Kadu or Kantu, Kaget or Kanzet, Thet, and Ingye.

At the time of the Burmese war Shah is mentioned in records as the language of the Kale valley, from which it has now completely disappeared."

To be continued....