Maharaja Garib Niwaz : Builder of Manipuri civilisation
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Maheshsana Rajkumar
Contd from previous issue
An author and researcher Wangam Somorjit and who currently serves as Director of Advanced Research Consortium Library and Archives, and who have recently launched the Korbek Archive Project, and based on his research work out rightly refuted that the Meitei script was destroyed and discontinued in 18th century by Garib Niwaz. According to Somorjit the stone inscriptions commissioned by Garib Niwaz at the peak of his power were engraved in Meitei script. The Anglo-Manipuri Treaty of 18th April 1833 was written in Meitei script. Most of the official documents, including treaties and kharitas (royal letters), were written in the Meitei script. A letter in Meitei script was sent to the Viceroy of India by Maharaja Chandrakirti in May 1868.
In the Administrative Report of the Manipur Political Agency for 1893-94, Shillong, 1894, Political Agent A. Porteous wrote that the Bengali script had not entirely ousted the Meitei script. Garib Niwaz himself commissioned the court scholar Angom Gopi to write a larger volume of Numit Kappa in Meitei Mayek in 1750 CE. Meitei Mayek had always been an official script used in the court of Manipur, alongside Bengali, English, and Burmese. The court chronicle Cheitharol Kumbaba has always been recorded in Meitei Mayek in an unbroken historical chain to this day. Even the kings of Manipur wrote letters to the Viceroy of India in Meitei Mayek. The Meitei script continued to be the official script of the Manipur court and the widespread use of the Bengali script was promoted only after the arrival of the printing press in 1910s and the establishment of English schools in Manipur. Wangam Somorjit on the recent finding of 18th century Garib Niwaz’s personal illuminated manuscript collection decorated with gold leaf with luminous effect has brought to the public attention the mentioned of his name ‘Garib Nawaz’ signed on the said manuscript.
To be contd
Contd from previous issue
An author and researcher Wangam Somorjit and who currently serves as Director of Advanced Research Consortium Library and Archives, and who have recently launched the Korbek Archive Project, and based on his research work out rightly refuted that the Meitei script was destroyed and discontinued in 18th century by Garib Niwaz. According to Somorjit the stone inscriptions commissioned by Garib Niwaz at the peak of his power were engraved in Meitei script. The Anglo-Manipuri Treaty of 18th April 1833 was written in Meitei script. Most of the official documents, including treaties and kharitas (royal letters), were written in the Meitei script. A letter in Meitei script was sent to the Viceroy of India by Maharaja Chandrakirti in May 1868.
In the Administrative Report of the Manipur Political Agency for 1893-94, Shillong, 1894, Political Agent A. Porteous wrote that the Bengali script had not entirely ousted the Meitei script. Garib Niwaz himself commissioned the court scholar Angom Gopi to write a larger volume of Numit Kappa in Meitei Mayek in 1750 CE. Meitei Mayek had always been an official script used in the court of Manipur, alongside Bengali, English, and Burmese. The court chronicle Cheitharol Kumbaba has always been recorded in Meitei Mayek in an unbroken historical chain to this day. Even the kings of Manipur wrote letters to the Viceroy of India in Meitei Mayek. The Meitei script continued to be the official script of the Manipur court and the widespread use of the Bengali script was promoted only after the arrival of the printing press in 1910s and the establishment of English schools in Manipur. Wangam Somorjit on the recent finding of 18th century Garib Niwaz’s personal illuminated manuscript collection decorated with gold leaf with luminous effect has brought to the public attention the mentioned of his name ‘Garib Nawaz’ signed on the said manuscript.
To be contd