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''' | {{Short description|Indian literature}} | ||
{{Use British English|date=March 2013}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2013}} | |||
{{Indian literature}} | |||
'''Meitei literature''', also known as '''Meetei literature''', refers to the literature written in [[Meitei language|Meitei]], one of the official languages of the Government of India. An institution of learning named the ''Luwang Nonghumsang'', later known as the ''Pandit Loishang'', collected the sources of indigenous Meitei knowledge and philosophy in the 18th century..<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-06-02|title=Akademi {{!}} Hasta in Manipuri - Part 1|url=https://akademi.co.uk/hasta-in-manipuri|quote=Individual authors of these traditions were not named, as movement was a product of, by, and for the collective.|access-date=2020-11-18|website=Akademi|language=en-US}}</ref> The presence of writing among the Meiteis is assumed to go back to the Kangleipak state under king Loiyumba in the early 12th century.<ref>Naorem Sanajaoba, Manipur Treaties and Documents-Vol I,1993, New Delhi. Book I: "Twelfth Century Meetei Constitution To Pemberton Report".</ref> The [[Meitei script]] is a [[Brahmic]] abugida. It is known only from the ''Puya'' manuscripts discovered in the first half of the 20th century. Manuscripts of the 18th and 19th century used the [[Bengali alphabet]]. The existence of the Meitei script in the 15th-century hinges on the authenticity of an inscription dated to the reign of [[Senbi Kiyamba]].<ref>According to K.B. Singh, The Meiteis of Manipur (1989 [1962]), [https://books.google.ch/books?id=Y0yED5k62TsC&pg=PA157 p. 157], an archaic form of the script had developed by the 11th century, and it was in use until the early 18th century, when it was replaced by the [[Bengali alphabet|Bengali script]]. By contrast, O.Tomba, ''The Need to rewrite Manipuri History'', Imphal, 1993, claims that the script is a development of c. 1930, with all supposedly older documents being deliberate forgeries (Frans Welman, ''Out of Isolation – Exploring a Forgotten World'' (2011), [https://books.google.ch/books?id=iOV8aaGZERQC&pg=PA468 468f.])</ref> | |||
== | ==Puyas== | ||
{{Main|Puya (Meitei texts)}} | |||
Meitei ''[[Puya (Meitei texts)|Puya]]'' manuscripts have been discovered by scholars, beginning in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|author=FS Downs|title=Indian Church History Review: Missionaries and Manuscripts|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wsTYAAAAMAAJ |volume=13|year=1979|publisher=Church History Association|pages=159–163, 167–168}}</ref><ref name="Sanajaoba1988p13"/> These are chronicles, and evidence that Hindus arrived from the Indian subcontinent with royal marriages at least by the 14th century, and in centuries thereafter, from what is now modern Assam, Bengal, [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Dravidian peoples|Dravidian]] kingdoms, and other regions.<ref name="Sanajaoba1988p13">{{cite book|author=Naorem Sanajaoba|title=Manipur, Past and Present: The Heritage and Ordeals of a Civilization|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-CzSQKVmveUC |year=1988|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-853-2|pages=12–14}}</ref> Another manuscript suggests that Muslims arrived in Manipur in the 17th century, from what is now Bangladesh, during the reign of Meidingu Khagemba.<ref name="Sanajaoba1988p13"/> Meitei literature documents the persistent and devastating Manipur–Burma wars.<ref name="Sanajaoba1988p15">{{cite book|author=Naorem Sanajaoba|title=Manipur, Past and Present: The Heritage and Ordeals of a Civilization|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-CzSQKVmveUC |year=1988|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-853-2|pages=3–6, 11–12, 15–18}}</ref> | |||
==Suppression of Meitei Literature== | |||
After the adoption of Hinduism as state religion under [[Gharib Nawaz (Manipur)|Gharib Nawaz]] (1717), it appears that the Puyas were "burnt completely" at ''Kangla Uttra'' under royal orders, in either 1729<ref name=singha143>{{cite journal |last= Singha|first= Komol|date= 2012|title= Nexus between Conflict and Development in India: A Case of Manipur|url= http://journalsweb.org/siteadmin/upload/24482%20IJHAS015031.pdf |journal= International Journal of Humanities and Applied Sciences|volume= 1|issue= 5|pages= 142–143|quote="Further, as an effort to popularise Hinduism and to make it as a state religion, on a full moon day of October (Wakching in Meitei), in 1729 AD, he collected all the Holy books (Puya) related to Sanna-Mahi religion and burnt them completely, devastated the ancient Meitei scriptures and cultural history."|access-date=18 June 2015}}</ref> or in 1732.<ref name="Birajit2014p120"/> | |||
The ''Puya'' manuscripts discovered in the 20th century at best have a tenuous connection with the texts burned under Gharib Nawaz.<ref name="Birajit2014p120"/> Like the Hindu and Jain Puranas, the extant ''Puyas'' contain cosmology, genealogies of gods and goddesses, and royal chronicles.<ref name="Birajit2014p120">{{cite book|author=Soibam Birajit|title=Meeyamgi Kholao: Sprout of Consciousness|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PgHgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 |year=2014|publisher=ARECOM Publishers|pages=120–121|id=GGKEY:3Z4QYHH8K7K}}</ref> | |||
==Epic poetry== | |||
The ''[[Numit Kappa]]'' ("Shooting the Sun") is a mythological text in narrative verse. It was published in English translation by [[T.C. Hodson]] (1908).<ref>T.C. Hodson, ''The Meitheis'', 1908, London. Appendix II, page 180.</ref> A translation into modern Meitei was published in 1908.<ref>Chanam Hemchandra, ''Numit Kappa'', translated and rendered into modern Meeteilon, 2008, Imphal, Manipur.</ref> | |||
''Ougri'' (also known as ''Leiroi Ngongloi Eshei'') is a poem written in archaic Meitei.<ref>Ningthoujongjam Khelchandra, ''History of Ancient Manipuri Literature'', Pub-Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, 1969.</ref> | |||
[[Khamba Thoibi]] is regarded as the greatest epic poetry in Meitei literature.{{by whom?|date=November 2019}} The work is composed by Hijam Anganghal of Samurou.{{fact|date=November 2019}} | |||
==Translations of other-language works== | |||
The ''[[Tirukkural]]'', an ancient [[Tamil language|Tamil]] work on [[secular ethics]], was [[Tirukkural translations into Meitei|translated into Meitei]] for the first time in 2012 by [[Soibam Rebika Devi]].<ref>{{cite news|title = திருக்குறளை மணிப்பூர் மொழியில் மொழி பெயர்த்து வெளியிட்ட மணிப்பூர் மங்கை ரேபிகா தேவி| newspaper = Valai Tamil.com | language = Tamil| publisher = ValaiTamil.com| date = 15 March 2014 | url = http://www.valaitamil.com/thirukkural-translated-in-manipuri-language_12079.html| access-date = 14 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| last = Krishnamachari | first = Suganthy | title = Under the spell of the Kural| newspaper = The Hindu| location = Chennai| publisher = Kasturi & Sons| date = 20 November 2014| url = http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/tirukkural-translations/article6618091.ece| access-date = 14 October 2017}}</ref> It is considered the first ever translation of a Tamil work into the Meitei language.<ref>{{cite journal | |||
| last = Khan | |||
| first = Tariq | |||
| author-link = | |||
| title = From the Scholars' Desk | |||
| journal = The Translation Bulletin | |||
| volume = | |||
| issue = 18 | |||
| pages = 41 | |||
| publisher = National Translation Mission, Central Institute of Indian Languages | |||
| location = Mysuru | |||
| date = 2017 | |||
| language = | |||
| url = https://www.ntm.org.in/download/bulletin/bulletin-october-december.pdf | |||
| jstor = | |||
| issn = | |||
| doi = | |||
| id = | |||
| mr = | |||
| zbl = | |||
| jfm = | |||
| access-date = 23 May 2021}}</ref> | |||
==Chronicles== | |||
The ''Nigthourol Shingkak'' is a work written under Gharib Nawaz, written in the mode of "predictions" made during the rule of Khagemba (r. 1597-1652) and thus foretelling the birth and reign of Gharib Nawaz and his religious reforms. The ''[[Cheitharol Kumbaba]]'' or "Royal Chronicle" is a text written down in the early 19th century, under Jai Singh, the puppet king installed after the [[Burmese invasions of Assam|Burmese invasion]], purportedly based on an older copy which was no longer available. It contains day-to-day transactions and occurrences the state.<ref>"The manuscripts collected by W. Yumjao Singh consist of literary, historical, astronomical, astrological and miscellaneous other works of which mention may be made of Cheitharon Kumbaba, the Ningthourol Shingkak, the Poireiton Khunthokpa, Dharani Samhita, Srimat Bhagabat. The Cheitharol Kumbaba or the royal chronicle has been the most valuable for historical investigations, as it professes to record all the important daily transactions and occurrences of the State.... By orders of Jai Singh this book was rewritten as the former copy was no more available then". "The Nigthourol Shingkak is a work written in the way of prediction. It professes to predict all important events that would happen from the time of Khagemba downward. It, therefore, professes to be a work of the early 17th century. It is an anonymous work, and in this book, we see for the first time Gharib Niwaz's having had some Naga connection in his childhood." Jyotirmoy Roy, History Of Manipur, 1958, p. 8.</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
*[[Aribam Syam Sharma]] | |||
*[[Heisnam Kanhailal]] | |||
*[[History of Manipur]] | |||
*[[Kanglei mythology]] | |||
*[[Khwairakpam Chaoba]] | |||
*[[M. K. Binodini Devi]] | |||
*[[Meitei inscriptions]] | |||
*[[Rajkumar Singhajit Singh]] | |||
*[[Ratan Thiyam]] | |||
*[[Sahitya Akademi Award to Manipuri Writers]] | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{Reflist}} | {{Reflist}} | ||
[[ | |||
{{ | ==External links== | ||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090828042840/http://www.sahitya-akademi.gov.in/old_version/awa10312.htm#manipuri Sahitya Akadmi Award ] | |||
*[http://www.culturopedia.com/Literature/manipuri_literature.html Manipuri Literature] | |||
*[http://e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=reviews.books.html Books Reviews] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manipuri Literature}} | |||
[[Category:Indian literature]] | |||
[[Category:Meitei culture]] | |||