Discovery of Kangleipak
- Part 5 -
- Kangleipak : The name of this land, up to 2nd half of the 18th century A.D. -

Wangkhemcha Chingtamlen *

Of course, all hill communities of Kangleipak might not have any tradition that they are descendants of a people called the Lai people. But the writer is very certain that both the hill and plain peoples have many oral unwritten traditions that they are brothers and sisters of the same family, ancestors.

As a corrobative evidence of this common tradition of the unity of origin of the hill and plain peoples, we have now very scientific evidence that all Naga group populations of Kangleipak have ethnic homogeneity with the Meetei of the valley. To show some scientific findings, please see the following :

"The Kabui follow the valley populations while Tangkhul present A>O>B. This pattern is however not observed with any other Naga groups from Nagaland. All Naga groups follow the pattern of the Meetei" page 43, the Meetei and the Bishnupriya.

"The close similarity in ABO blood group between the Tangkhul Nagas and the Meeteis is again confirmed indicating the ethnic homogeneity between these two groups. This was observed in other various general markers."

Page 43, The Meetei and the Bishnupriya.

In such circumstances of the relation of the hill and plain peoples, traditionally and scientifically, the writer cannot imagine any otherwise relations between the hill and plain peoples of Kangleipak.

The name Kangleipak is not a name given to the land by the plain dweller Meetei, but by the Lai people certainly to be the ancestors of the hill and plain peoples. The writer earnestly feel the name Kangleipak was a name of the undivided hill and plain peoples upto only yesterday, the 2nd half of the 18th century A.D., up to the time of King Bhagyachandra Jai Singh.

One very important point to be remembered is that the Meetei language became a literary language since 2000 B.C. as known upto this day.

Question before the indigenous peoples of Kangleipak now : At what time, the name Kangleipak was given to this beloved Land of the hill and plain peoples by the Lai People ?

So far up to only yesterday, we were groping in the dark, as no scientific excavation of any historical place of Kangleipak and dating of any find therefrom were done by the Government of Manipur, though we have seen a costly excavation of "Murari/Morari Lampak or Lawn/ground of dead, the graveyard" of Khangabok and the finds were dated by C-14 dating method. Hip Hip Hooray for the Government of Manipur from the writer for the scientific excavation of a known place of Mayang habitation in recent history.

Now thank to God, we have a report on the "Proceedings of National Conference on Luminescence and its Application (NCLA-2009), (February 19-21, 2009)" held in Calcutta organized by
1. Luminescence Society of India
2. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
3. Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute,
on the excavation of the Imphal Kangla by Mr. Nanjest and his group of scientists.

Please see the Xerox of the report on the Imphal Kangla excavation :

Click here for a larger resolution image

In the Xerox above, please find K-11-15 under col. Layer; 9.8-11 under col. Depth in (feet); silty clay/sand under col. Lithology; wood xylem, potshard under col. Archaeo-sediments; pluvial with mass wasting under col. Climatic inference; and 19.3+2.1 under col. OSL/TL date (in ka).

This table of the report is a complete scientific data on Imphal Kangla with reference to rocks, Archaeo-sediments of cultural significance, climatic inferences from rocks found and age of human habitation inferred from the finds from the excavation. The excavation site was near the crossing of roads from Kangla west gate and south to north AOC gates, to the west of the road, south to north AOC gate.

When the digging reaches 11-15 layer at 9.8-11 feet, potshard, that is, broken pieces of pottery used by human beings as plates, cooking utensils etc. were found. When further digging at 11-16.5 feet, no potshard etc. that can infer human habitation was found.

The cultural finds from the Imphal Kangla excavation are dated by OSL/TL (Optically stimulated Luminescence/Thermo luminescence) method of scientific dating of rocks etc. as 19.3+2.1 years in thousand BP, that is Imphal Kangla had been inhabited by human beings in 19300+2100 years before present, inferred from the scientific dating of the cultural finds from the Imphal Kangla excavation.

The findings on the Imphal Kangla by the NCLA of the rocks etc. from the Imphal Kangla excavation is very significant and its impact on the cultural level of the indigenous people of Kangleipak will be immense.

Some important inferences may be seen. Our scripture, the Puya is very categorical that the first human beings inhabited present Imphal Kangla was the Lai People, who were the ancestors of the Meetei Race.

From this OSL/TL dating of Imphal Kangla rocks, etc. it is scientifically proved now that the Lai People, coming down from the Koubru mountain ranges, inhabited Imphal Kangla, Kangla Impham in the Puya, around 20,000 years before present or 200 centuries before present, at around 18,000 years BC or 180 centuries B.C.

It may further be inferred that Imphal valley might be dried up, after the water had been drained through Chingnunghut at about 17,000 years BP making it suitable for human habitation. This further may mean, naming of this land Kangleipak by the Lai People, the ancestors of the present hill and plain peoples may be some times around 150 century B.C.

The scientific dating of human habitation at Kangla Impham (Imphal Kangla) at around 20,000 years before present, or 18,000 years B.C. or 180 centuries B.C. may further indicate that our present calculation that our first Monarchy was established around 2000 years B.C. may become wrong and it may be much earlier in the light of this scientific finding.

Kangleipak may become one of the earliest Monarchies on the Earth.

to be continued...

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* Wangkhemcha Chingtamlen contributes regularly to e-pao.net . The writer is President, Kangleipak Historical and Cultural Research Centre, Sagolband Thangjam Leirak, Imphal, Kangleipak (Manipur). The writer can be contacted at chingtamlen(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on May 21st, 2009.

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