In Search of Manipur

On account of having once seen an expert Manipuri dancer performing in Calcutta,–though I was true to my first love, the Kathakali Dance, and continued to study and present it,–I could not forget the Manipuri Dance; and while abroad on my various tours, I always planned to return to India again one day and visit that far-distant land of Manipur which, I knew, lay at the extreme East of India adjoining the Burma border.

And so, when my Kathakali artist, Shivaram, decided to take rest after the strain of four years’ public appearances abroad, I sailed straight to Bombay and luckily found there that same Manipuri dancer who had delighted me in Calcutta some years before. As I stepped into a tiny flat on the fifth floor of a crowded Bombay apartment-house, I met him face to face, about to begin his morning “Puja”; and in that moment we both knew that the time had come for me to “take interest” in Manipur Dance and its greatest exponent. This dancer, by name Rajkumar Priyagopal Singh, was delighted to take me to see his beloved country Manipur.

The long, dusty train-journey from Bombay to Calcutta was at last. Over, too, was the amazing sight of Calcutta lying helpless in dust and cowdung smoke, reeking in open drains, its children struggling to play in little crowded parks, its pale little women leaning from balconies to breathe the foul air. Now at last we were up, up to the cool heights, and looking down over the wings of the plane to the tiny tanks and fields of pretty Bengal. How like snakes these great green rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, twisting like huge veins in a marble mosaic of fawns and browns (the tiny rice-fields)! And then the hills! Range after range of mountains, and at last our first sight of the fabulous land of Manipur lying like a gem ringed in by many ranges of mountains! No wonder that the sages of old thought it to be the navel of the world! This land has been proved beyond all doubt to be the real Manipur mentioned in the Mahabharata epic. To this “land of Gandharvas (celestial dancers)” came the great hero Arjuna to study the dance; and here he married the Princess Chitrangada, promising her father that their son Babruvahan would be of the Solar Dynasty and not, like Arjuna, of the Lunar Dynasty. So who can say of what Dynasty are the Kings of Manipur today? Be that as it may, I found my Manipuri dancer, Rajkumar Priyagopal, was himself a member of that Dynasty, and it all added to my delight in the discovery of Manipur.

Near to Bengal, Assam and Burma, and not so far from China, this land of Manipur has never considered itself part of India; for in olden days it was a separate Kingdom constantly at war, sometimes getting help from Assam and more recently from the British, to keep out its traditional enemies, the Burmese. It was under British rule for 57 years only; and therefore the English language is not spoken fluently here. It is now a State governed from Delhi, yet Indians are still referred to here as “foreigners”, and the part of Imphal (its main town) where Indians are living, is called “the foreign quarter”. If you ask the question, “Are you a Hindu?” the reply will come “I am a Manipuri”. Yet the religion in general is Hindu, the ancient script is based on Sanskrit, and the Classical Dance is obviously a branch of the old Classical School of India. Who then are the Manipuris who claim that their rich language has borrowed no words from other languages?

It is said that amongst the various peoples of the hills and plain of Manipur, the Meitei ruling-race of the plain were of Aryan stock and came from the Himalaya regions to Manipur before the time of the Mahabharata. The Meitels worshipped Pak-hangba, son of the eternal sky-father Garu-Sidao, and the earth-mother Leimaren. Pakhangba wished to be born as a mortal. He has a myriad forms and is present in everything. These ancient gods, in some form, occupy a place in every Meitei household today. Though Hindu “Vaishnavism” is the State religion in Manipur, marriage and New Year ceremonies and much of the worship is according to pre-Hindu customs. The Meiteis chose the culture of the Hindus which came from time to time from the West; and so their classical dance (Jagoi) contains the mudras and fundamental principles of the Hindu classical school, but also a rich inheritance from ancient religious dances of the Meiteis which one can still see performed here. Such dances as that of “Khamba.” are purely Meitei in origin. The sword and spear dances are also purely Manipuri (Meitei), for this race of warrior-rulers excelled in methods of self-defence which are unfortunately now dying out since they became a subject-race forbidden the use of weapons.

Jagoi (Manipuri Dance Art) is described in literature written in archaic Manipuri characters on palm leaves. This awaits translation by scholars. Meanwhile, unfortunately, many valuable scripts were destroyed during the sudden encounter between Japanese and British in 1942 in Imphal.Efforts are being made by the leading dancer, Rajkumar Priyagopal to collect and preserve the remaining scripts. We learn from the old Meitei Puranas that Manipur was the play-ground of the gods before they went to heaven. Here they held their dance-festivals and polo-matches. (Even now, if an epidemic breaks out amongst domestic animals, the gods are propitiated by being offered a polo stick and ball.) There is proof that the Indian prince, Arjuna, came to Manipur to study the dance more than 2000 years ago. In ancient books Manipur is continually referred to as the “land of Gandharvas” (celestial male dancers and musicians); and indeed Manipur may well retain that name till the present, day, for the art of dancing-drummers and dancing-cymbal players is quite unique here, and not found in India. Apart from the pure Meitei dancing found in the festivals of ancient gods (“Lai-Harouba”) and in military festivals (“Astra-Sastra-Vidya”), the Krishna dance-drama (“Ras Nritya-Pareng”) is noted for its Hindu classical style, and the drum-dances (“Natts-Chalom”) are, as mentioned, quite unique and of rare beauty. These form the four main sections of the great art of Jagoi.

It is only within the last fifteen years that India has itself come to know Jagoi. It was hailed there immediately as a development of the ancient Hindu Classical Dance, the principles of which were laid down in the Natya Sastra treatise about fifteen hundred years ago. When the Bengali poet Tagore had his first glimpse of Jagoi (Priyagopal dancing his “Vasant Nritya”), he was moved to tears. When Priyagopal’s father-guru died in 1939, Tagore wrote, “India has lost one of her greatest sons.” Jagoi is considered one of the four main schools of Indian classical dance; and along with Kathakali, Bharata Natya and Kathak, it manifests the three traditional aspects, namely Natya, Nritya and Nritta. Kathakali specializes in the first two acting and acting-cum-dancing), while Jagoi specializes in Nritta (pure rhythmical dance). There is a temptation now to combine the two arts in modern Indian dancing; but this could be attempted only by gurus of each art experimenting together. The efforts of daring young students, as exhibited on the Indian stage today, are nothing but a hotch-potch which endanger the standard of Indian art. Raj-kumar Priyagopal has never studied any other form of Indian dance, nor has he seen Western dance; and hence his art is pure and represents the highest traditions of Manipur art.

To the visitor to Mmipur it becomes very apparent that, even more important than a daily ‘plane service’, is the preservation of Manipur’s culture. The beautiful art of dancing-musicians continues here, for it is used at all religious functions; but the Classical Dance is now only used for the Krishna-Drama (“Ras”), and the only male art, Krishna, is now danced by a little girl or boy. The female roles of the “Gopis” are taken by young amateur girls who marry early and therefore do not train seriously. The beautiful role of Radha is for some peculiar reason taken by a tiny girl. All other dance-dramas seem to have disappeared, though the great Manipuri epic “Moirang Paraba” and the Indian epic were formerly the subjects for dance-drama. The knowledge of the dance is with the old gurus who are fast disappearing. Funds are needed to establish a dance-centre to preserve the art and encourage professional dancers. Likewise the old tribal dances of the Manipur Hill-peoples must be recorded, because these people are becoming Christians and adopting Western dress and customs.

Meanwhile this “land of Gandharvas” is ever beautiful. The roads now glisten after showers, little birds sing “Ting-gong-kang-gong” and mountains show clean and deep-toned after cloud-drenchings, while soft breezes blow tree-blossoms down onto green grass. It is May, yet no heat has come to this fair, high land. Oh, to roam no further, but surrounded by nine rings of mountains, forget, like the Meiteis of old that other lands in the world existed!