Tiny State of Manipur, once princely is nestled in the extreme north-eastern corner of India between 23.800 N to 25.680N latitude and 930.03 E to 94.780 E longitude.

The land was variously known as Meitei Leibak, Sana Leibak, Kathe (for Burmese or Myanma-rese), Mekla (for Assam-ese), Moglai (for Bengali), Kangleipak, Poirepak, Meitrebak, Aranya Nagar, Mahendra Nagar, Mekhladesh etc.

Presently this flowery state is known as Manipur which literally means 'a jewelled land'. It is not surprising and unnatural that old name like Kangleipak relegated in oblivion as Aryavarta or Bharatvarsh became Indian and Hindustan and Sanatan Dharma became Hinduism.

Pataliputra had a long journey of names like Pushppur, Kusumpur, Lodipur and Azimabad and so on. Manipur is a gateway to the south-east Asia with its bounteous vistas of untrammelled beauty and ancient traditions, e.g.. dance, drama, long, history of administration, handloom and handicrafts, sports etc.

The state is set in an oval valley among smoky tree-clad hills and is gifted by temperate salubrious climate. Nature has gifted this state with a paradise flower of Shiroy Lily and Chitrangade Lily, a rare antlered dancing deer-named Sangai, Pengba fish (which is almost extinct) and various orchids.

The State is bounded on the north by the State of Nagaland (by the Naga hills), on the south by Mizoram (Lushai hills) and Myanmar, on the east by Myanmar (Upper Myan-mar) and on the west by the State of Assam (Cachar region).

The State occupies 22,327 sq km areas with 22,93,896 population (of which 21,66,788 excluding 3 sub-divisions of Senapati distinct and rest is estimated population for these 3 sub-divisions as per 2001 census).

Alongwith Jiribam sub-division of Imphal East district five hill districts, viz, Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Ukhrul and Chandel form other portion of the State while four valley districts, namely, Imphal West, Imphal East (minus Jiribam sub-division) Bishnupur and Thoubal constitute the inner portion.

Manipur is a mosaic of people which can rightly be said to be replica of India's essence of unity in diversity. It is inhabited by both indigenous as well as non-indigenous people.

Indigenous people include Meitei, seven groups of Scheduled Castes, 29 groups of Scheduled Tribes and other small groups while non-indigenous group include migrants from Punjab, Rajasthan, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Haryana, Bangladesh, etc.

The term indigenous group is a misnomer because fore-fathers of those groups were wanderer and in course of wandering they settled here.

Instead of indigenous group the term earlier settler or ancient settler would be more appropriate. Scheduled castes and mostly Meitei are Hindus whereas tribal are mostly Christians. Proselytising impact of Christians started in early 20th century.

In small sections of Meitei there is confusion about Hinduism. They view Hinduism in the light of description of Christian English writers. Hinduism is a amalgamation of local religion or worshipper and give every individual freedom of worshipping in his own way.

At higher plane Hinduism provide opportunity to all local religion/worshipper to attain spiritualism. Essence of Hinduism lies in Vashudhaiv Kutumbkam, Sarve Sukhina Santu and Sarva Dharm Sambhav.

According to Oinam Anand, a columnist in Sangai Express, Manipur was visited by Buddhist monk during 6th century BC. According to RK Jhaljit Singh a copper plate inscription (799AD) of King Khongtekcha starts with the word Shri Hari. It means among trinity Vishnu was known to Manipuri during 8th Century AD.

Studded in North-Eastern Himalayan Zone Manipur has three well defined regions:
i) The Manipur Hills - The Manipur hill covers roughly around 20089 sq km area, accounting for around 90 per cent of the State area of 22,327 sq km. The population of hill area is around 8,82,130 (considering population of 5 hill districts), accounting for 38.46 per cent of State population of 22,93,896 (2001 census population for 35 sub-divisions and estimated population for 3 sub-divisions).

ii) The Manipur valley: It is also known as Imphal valley. It covers an areas of around 9% with roughly 13,73,938 persons. It is an oval shaped elevated area with an average (mean sea level) altitude of around 792 meters.

iii) The Jiribam Plain: The Jiribam plain has 37,828 inhabitants (19029 males and 18799 females). Of them 31,405 persons reside in rural areas and 6423 in urban areas.

Three National Highways, viz, NH-39, NH-53 and NH-153 pass through the state. Of them NH-39 and NH-53 are considered as life-lines of the State. Opening of rail-head at Jiribam in May, 1990 brought the state on railway map of India.

There is a proposal afoot to link Jiribam with Toupul by rail link. Imphal is the capital city of the State. Imphal Municipal Council is spread over twin districts of Imphal West and Imphal East. The town of Imphal was singleton town of the state from 1901 to 1961.

The early history of Manipur is unfortunately lost under the cloud of obscurity. The Directorate of Art and Culture, Govt of Manipur prepared a list of 76 kings who ruled over Manipur. The history of Manipur is a saga of the social and cultural development of a remarkable people.

The modern history of Manipur dates back to the year 1714 when Pamheiba is said to have shot his adopted father and succeeded him under the name of Garib Newaz. He occupied the throne for 40 years from 1714 AD to 1754 AD. He was a man of dynamic nature.

Diplomatic relations of Manipuri King with the East India company became gradually counter productive. The British influence and interference in the administration of Manipur increased gradually.

Slowly situation took ugly turn. On 23rd April, 1891 Manipur was defected by mighty British force on the stream of Khongjom (a place of present Thoubal district). And thus Manipur became the last kingdom of India to be conquered by the British and Manipur became a vassal state.

After the end of Second World War these was a demand in the State for a representative Govt. The lapse of British Paramountcy on 14th August, 1947 had given opportunity for establishing a constitutional monarchy.

Maharaja Bodhchandra Singh remained the king while younger brother of Maharajah MK Priyobrata Singh became the Chief Minister of the State. On behalf of the people of Manipur Maharaja Bodhchandra signed merger agreement under duress with Govt of India on 15th October, 1949.

The Govt of India abolished the post of Political Agent and Manipur became a Part 'C' State.

Although the State of Manipur has not been affected by any inter-state territorial transfer since the merger of the State with the Indian Union there had been a number of inter-district territorial adjustments and re-alignments.

Till the time of 1961 census Manipur was a single district Union Territory. In 1951 census when Manipur was a single district part 'C' State there were only sub-divisions - 3 in the plains/valley, viz, Sadar, Thoubal and Jiribam and 5 in the hills, namely Mao, Churachandpur, Tengnoupal, Ukhrul and Tamenglong.

In 1961 census Sadar sub-division was divided into Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur sub-divisions. Thus, these became 10 sub-divisions, 5 in plains and 5 in hills.

Mao sub-division was renowned as Mao and Sadar Hills sub-division.

In 1957, the Manipur Territorials Council was set up under an Act of the Parliament consisting of 32 members, 30 elected on the basis of adult suffrage and 2 nominated by the Central Government.

In 1963, the Council became the Manipur Territorial Assembly. On 12th November, 1969 the whole state was divided into 5 districts and 25 sub-divisions. The five districts were Manipur North, Manipur West, Manipur South Manipur Central and Manipur East.

On January 21, 1971 Manipur attained full statehood. It got a 60 member Legislature Assembly.

In May 1974 the sub-divisions of Tengnoupal, Chandel and Chakpikarong were separated from Manipur Central district and put under the newly formed Tengnoupal district. On May 24, 1983 the Bishnupur and Thoubal sub-division of Manipur Central district were upgraded to Bishnupur and Thoubal districts.

Thus Manipur Central district lost 2 sub-divisions and retained erstwhile 3 sub-divisions as well as renamed as Imphal district. In the same year the names of other 6 district were also changed.

The creation of Thoubal and Bishnupur districts was followed by creation of three new sub-divisions (e.g. Paomata, Kakching and Moirang vide MEC 343 dt 25.11.83) and four new sub-divisions (e.g. IW-I, IW-II, IE-I & IE - II vide MEC 491 dt 8.1.88).

On 18th June 1997 the erstwhile Imphal district was fabricated into two districts - Imphal West and Imphal East.

The state has presently following administration set-up:
No. of district - 9
No. of sub-division - 38
No. of CD Blocks - 9
No. of TD Blocks - 25
No. of Villages - 2391
No. of Towns- 33 (28 statutory towns and 5 census towns).