Maharaja Garib Niwaz : Builder of Manipuri civilisation

Maheshsana Rajkumar
Contd from previous issue
The annual boat race festivals then traditionally known as Heigru Hidongba was renamed as Jala Yatra. The festival of Waira Tenkap was redesigned as Kirtan of Lord Ram. The traditional festival of Kongba Leithong Phatpa was reidentified with Vishnu Sankranti. The festival of Ahong Khongching was modified as Dol Yatra. The ancient festival of offering feast to the ancestors known as Tara Chanou Katpa becomes known as Priti Lok Iratpa. The worship of Nungoibi was substituted by Dusserah. Festival of testing newly harvested rice was known as Chanou Huichintu in the month of October was replaced by Govardhan Puja.
The introduction of Hinduism marked the synthesis of the old and new elements and consequently it led to the evolution of a syncretised form of Hinduism which is still practiced here in Manipur, and that the harmonization which has been going on in India since ancient times forming a single culture was also seen at work in Manipur and it can be seen from the syncretisation of old and new faiths or tenets. Unlike in other regions, after conversion to Hinduism all the converted Meiteis, including members of the king’s own family and other royal dynasty were declared to belong to the Kshatriya caste. It is one of the unique feature of Manipuri Hinduism where only two caste viz. Kshatriya and Brahmin coexists; descendents of immigrant Brahmins belonging to the Brahmin caste and the rest Meitei population belonging to the Kshatriya caste, in particular, Surya Vamsa of Shri Ramachandraji of the Ramayana”.
J. Roy recorded among the literary activities it is mentioned that Bijoy Panchali was rewritten by Dwija Sita Ram Sarma, a chronicler in the court of Gharib Niwaz. He also stated that the temple of Ramji and the customs of putting special white turban by the Manipuris on ceremonial occasions indicate even to-day the influence of Ramanandi cult.
Renowned scholar Michael W. Charney gives a detailed account on religious and cultural changes and burning of old scriptures in the reign of Garib Niwaz as follows: The impact on Manipur of these changes can be overestimated, but the effect they had on the Lower Chindwin may have been dramatic in more tangible ways. According to some oral traditions, however, when the books were piled up to be burned, some books proved to be immune to the fire and flew off to different parts of kingdom, a certain indication, along with the continued existence of reportedly burned manu- scripts of the time today, that many texts were not really destroyed but hidden.
More than anything else, these activities likely decentralized the distribution of Manipuri literature. Even without this event, Manipur was already a significant route for the introduction of Sanskrit works into Burma, as Sanskrit scholars have pointed out. Although the Simhala niti spread to Burma by sea from Southern India, for example, other Sanskrit-based niti-texts came through northern India, probably brought by Manipuri Brahmins.
The decades old vilification campaign against Maharaja Garib Niwaz, the greatest king in the history of Manipur by the certain section of revivalists on the burning of Puyas must come to an end in the light of retrieval of factual documents. The puyas whether it was burnt or not at the behest of Garib Niwaz has now become a debatable issue. It is widely believed that the Cheitharol Kum-baba with Maharaja Chura- chand Singh’s permission was edited by L. Ibungohal Singh and Pandit N. Khel-chandra Singh and published by the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad in 1967. The Cheitharol Kumbaba, the official royal chronicle of Manipur kings, did not mention the burning event in its earliest published versions. Later editions by the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad included notes or emendations mentioning the libri- cide, which some scholars suggest were based on the later accounts rather than original records.
(To be contd)