The best number of the Meetei race of Kangleipak is Seven
- Discovery of Kangleipak :: Part 36 -

Wangkhemcha Chingtamlen *

Two Traditional Facts We Should Not Forget:
1. What is the best number of the Meetei race of Kangleipak?
2. The first meal of a married couple together in their lives on the night of the marriage day in Kangleipak.

If you are an adult Kangleicha, if you are a married one specially, you remember your marriage function clearly as the day and the function are deeply impressed in your mind, as the day and the functin are particularly important in your life.

On the day of your marriage, you sit in the middle of the Function Sanglen with a special dress of the function, with a religious ceremony, with a turban if you are a Kangleicha Meetei, before an audience of your relatives and friends along with the relatives and friends of your partner of your life. If you are a bridegroom, your bride will come out from her paternal house with a special dress designed for the function. She will sit in your front(groom), slightly to your left(groom), after tying hands(of the groom and the bride); and after the relatives and friends of both parties gave gifts for the happinness and long lives of the couple, the hands of the couple will be released.

Then the bride will go seven times round the groom with flowers showering on the head of the groom after completing each round with bowing to the groom. After going seven rounds, the bride will put two garlands on the neck of the groom and will share the same seat of the groom. The groom will take out one garland from his neck and will put to the neck of the bride. The marriage is complete.

In the marriage, a ceremonial function related to reproduction and extension the wish of the Univeral God Father for His creation endless, why the bride goes round the groom seven times?

And, everybody knows that anything offered in the marriage ceremony to the God Almighty is in seven numbers. To say in concrete, the Meetei race of Kangleipak offers everything in seven numbers to the Almighty God Father in every religious ceremony, for example, Heiram Taret, Leiram Taret, Ngaram Taret, Saram Taret, etc.(seven kinds of fruits, seven kinds of flowers, seven kind of fishes, seven kinds of animals, etc) in every religious ceremony including Marriage ceremony, Ipan thaba(swasti), Apokpa khurumba, etc.

Why always in seven numbers?
The emphatic answer is: The best number of the Meetei race of Kangleipak is 7(seven).

Why 7 is the best number?

The Lord Universal Father or Almighty the Universal God Creator is called Ipung Loinapa Apakpa or Ipungloi Apakpa by the Kanglei Wang-u-pa(philosopher) in Kangleipak. The Ipung Loinapa Apakpa is composed of seven parts according to the Kanglei Scripture.

Readers may please note what the Puya, Wakoklon Heelel Thilel Salai Ama-ilon Pukok says on it's page:
"Asum oilapa sai-on lang-onki eeyek |
eenunglon |
khununglon asi kheipiktiEepung Loinapaka amat-tane: khangpio ||

(ama) hailipa sitapa mapuki huksang langpumki eepung
kayatki laipham laiming maphamne lepna khangpio ||

asiki matung-inna laipungthou taletki eeyek pathap kaitana
amati Nongpok Chingkhei Apanpane |
aniti Awangpa Koupalune |
ahumti Thangching Koilel Lai Sitapane |
maliti Khana Chaopa Wangpulel Lai Sitapane |
mangati Eelai Pulel Puling Lai Sitapane |
talukti Lainingthou Pankalpane |
taletti Salailel Sitapa: Taletna Laipungthoune ||"

Further the Puya says:
"Eepungloi Apakpaki Nung-Sa Sa-tumpu khaithokpa atuna wakonpungta leipa laipungthou taletta yenthokle |"

The things, all things we see, all things that can move and cannot move, including the heavenly bodies are all manifestations of Ipung Loinapa Apakpa. The seven Laipungthous – from Nongpok Chingkhei Apanpa to Salailel Sitapa, seven in number, are in the Self of the Ipungloi Apakpa and are in the human body created in the image of the Ipungloi Apakpa. This is the substance of first quotation from the scripture above.

In the second quotation above, what is said in the first quotation is confirmed.

In the second quotation 'Wakonpungta', wakonpung means kok = head.
'wakonpungta leipa Laipungthou taletta yenthokle' means it is 'divided to the seven laipungthous (who) are in the head.' The humble writer will convey to the esteemed readers one very interesting fact of cosmic evolution expressed in the second quotation from the kanglei scripture. In the 2nd quotation you see "Nung-sa sa-tum". This is a scientific fact at present in the 21st century.

"Nung-sa": Here, Nung means immaterial, abstract, spiritual; at present Kanglei vocabulary, Nungsiba, Nung-ngaiba, Nung-Ngaitaba, Khamnung(siba - Khamnung Sawa Tan, Amam Yathong Kum). This is a conceptual expression. 'Nung' represents the immaterial form of Ipung Loinapa Apakpa, that is "Talang Malang" according to the Kanglei Scripture.

The next concept 'Sa' with a (-) indicates the changing cosmic evolution from the immaterial spiritual form of Ipung Loinapa Apakpa to material 'Sa' means having body, having weight, volume, etc of the earthly living beings, that is 'Sa-tum' that is, in the human head, Wakonpung.

The 2nd quotation expresses a fact of cosmic evolution changing from spiritual, ideal, conceptual form God to concrete material form of the present universe. One obvious fact expressed in the 2nd quotation is that the 'Nung-Sa Satum' is divided to the seven Laipungthous in the Wakonpung, that is, the Head. Further, the readers may remember that the Ipung Loinapa Apakpa incarnating as 18 scripts and Singthalon Cheising Eeyek because the Ating-aa (The Space, etc). This means Ating-aa is the 2nd self of the Universal Lord Tengpalpa Mapu Ipung Loinapa Apakpa.

The Kanglei Wang-u-pa called this space, Ating-aa as Nongthou also. Readers may hear Leirol taret, Nonglon Taret. This means the earth has seven layers, the space has seven layers. We have known now that the seven layers of the space is seven colours and still we do not know what is seven layers of the earth. We have known now also that the seven colours of the space (Ating-aa, Salailel Sitapa, Ipa Sorarel, etc) gave birth to seven salais of the meetei race. In the Puya, Wakoklon Heelel Thilel Salai Ama-ilon Pukok, our sacred scripture says very clearly:
" (ama) hailipa Ipung Loinapa Apakpana thouwaimichak cheiyom taletpu eenunglonna khununglonna chei-on talet haina haikhale ||o||"

The concept/word "Cheiyom" means 'bundle of progenies'. Here cheiyom = chei + yom = cha + i + yom, cha means progenies, descendants, etc. + i means Ee, further means blood, yom means mayom bundle. The word/concept 'Cheion', chei-on means cha + i+ on means sai-on, lang-on. From this statement of the puya, scripture we know very clearly that life is spaceorigin from seven stars, the seven days of the week (chei-on taret) is the basis of creation of man.

The Kanglei Meetei race's khunnai (civilization) is founded on seven basis, that is, from the God Father Universal Creator to our present living civilization based on seven clans(Salai Taret) having seven kinds of colours. The Meetei race of Kangleipak takes the number 7(seven) as the 'Chang Thokpa', that is, deathless life, ever expanding, never ending universe. Therefore, the Kanglei Meetei race used traditionally 7(seven) as the best number since time immemorial.

(2). The First Meal of a Couple Life.

The marriage ceremony among the peoples of Kangleipak is performed generally afternoon in the evening. The first meal of the couple life together is taken in the night of the marriage day when the bride reaches the home of the bride groom. In the pre-hindu days, the bride and the bride groom take their first meal of their lives together on the same hao pukham( a plate 'Pukham' called Hao pukham, here Hao means common name for all hill peoples of Kangleipak).

Just before the couple took their meal together on one hao pukham, as a tradition in Kangleipak, the bride by her own hand gives 3(three) or 7(seven) morsels of the food from the hao pukham to the very mouth of the groom as a mother does to her loving child. The significance: the bride will treat and love the groom, her husband, as her loving child and the groom will treat and love the bride, his wife as his mother to say the least.

The writer was married in 1971, with an instruction from the parents, the writer's bride, the writer's married wife gave the writer 3 morsels of the food from the Hao pukham specially used for the day before the writer and his wife took meals together from the same Hao pukham.

In the post-hindu days, on the day of marriage, the first meal of the couple's life together, the bride groom took the meal first from a pukham, and the bride took the food left-over by the bride groom after he took to his satisfaction. The significance: extreme gender bias, extreme supression of fair sex.

"It is remarkable that the Indonesians of Hai-nan call themselves Hiao in the centre and Dai in the southern part, and Li and Lai in south-western part, and these groups are said to speak different dialects which may be sprung originally from the same language." - Page 7, the Tai and the Tai kingdoms by Padmeswor Gogoi.

The word 'Lai' in the above quotation is the 'Lai' people originally from the top of the Koupalu(Koubru) mountain tops. The 'Mongolian Spot', which the Kangleichas, hill and plain peoples, have to almost all of them, are found to almost all of the south east original Asians also, Japanese, Pacific island peoples including the Indonesians. Please see the Indonesian couple on the day of their marriage:

Fig. An Indonesian couple on the day of their marriage
(photo source: Culture of the World-Indonesia by Times Books International, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur)

The Indonesian upto this day are following the Kangleicha's customary and traditional practice regarding the first meal together of the couple's life on the marriage day as seen above in the photograph.

The Indonesians think that they came from the north (Asiatic Mainland) to the present islands groups. They built busts of their ancestors and kept them in proper places facing the north.

To be continued.....