Nata Sankirtan Maha Jeigya in the Manipuri society

Yumnam Suren
Tasmat Sankirtanang vigyorjagadmanglaman Mahatamapi kourvya Bindhyeikanlik Nishkritam.
The above Sanskrit lines occurring in the sixth skandha, the third chapter and the thirty four sloka of the Shri Madbhagavata Mahapurana signifies that Shri Bishnu Sankirtan, a similitu of propitious blessings to all the world, is the one and only means for complete absolution of one’s various skins committed, and since the kings of Manipur were staunch believers and worshippers of Bhagavata, Nata Sankirtan was made an inevitable part and parcel of the religions and ritualistic functions as well as festivals of the Manipuri Society which follow. Gouriya Vaisnavism faith.
In all ritualistic functions pertaining to a person’s life beginning from conception and birth to death Nata Sankirtan is attached, and also in ceremonies, such as Subha Vivaha (marriage) and Shradha Karm (final performance of funeral service) etc. Nata Sankirtan has been made a very important part of them.
Though the ceremonies of tonsure (Churakaran) the ear-piercing (Karnavedha) and the investitur with the Sacred thread (Upanayan) are performed in abidance of the Smriti Veda by setting up a sacrificial fire in the form of Agnihoti Yagya the formal procedure of the yagya (sacrifice) begins after invoking the tutelary deity (Isla Deva…) with a nata sankirtan with a pung-raga (a short drum recital) and the function is closed with the singing of a nata song known as ‘Vijay Louba’. In the life of a Hindu ten ceremonies called ‘Dasa Sanskar’ are to be performed and there include the three above mentioned Sanskars and ‘Chawumba Annaprasan’ (giving the first morsel of solid food to a baby) also.
Most of the Indian Hindus have the custom of giving a daughter in marriage to a man by performing a fire-sacrifice and making the Agnihotri Yagya to testify it. But, in the Manipuri Society following Gouriya Vaisnavism instead of a marriage with fire-sacrifice, ….. Parents arrange the ever blessed Nata Sankirtan Mahayagya by invoking Ista Devata (tutelary deity) and give their daughter in marriage to a man with the chanting of Veda Mantra and wish the best future for the young husband and wife.
There existed a great doubt in the minds of the Manipuris about the performance of a marriage ceremony with agni-yagya (fire-sacrifice) that the virtue and benefits of the yagyas would be received by the arranger i.e. the bride’s father only to the exclusion of the groom and the bride as they had not attained the stakes of house-holders and were not eligible for the worship of the fire-god and the yagya was useless and irrelevant to the welfare of the new couple, and this might be the reason of the avoidance of agni yagya in the Manipuri marriage and the replacing (To be contd)