Land of Gods and Goddesses : Book Review
- Book by N. Khagendra -

James Oinam *

Book Review: Land of Gods and Goddesses
Author: N. Khagendra
Publisher: The Cultural Forum, Manipur
Year of Publication: Not mentioned
No. of Pages: 253

With interesting and pertinent quotes of famous authors and people, this book can be an important collection for your book shelf. Also, it has colour pictures of various hills of Manipur associated with the local creation myth, architectural plan of traditional Manipuri house called ‘yumjao’, traditional Manipuri wrestling with sticks (mukna-kangjei), etc.

The author tries to cover various grounds, and not just lists gods and goddesses, as the book begins with a chapter on the Himalayas and its scientific origin theory. Then the narrative moves on to cover various tribes associated with this land, and semi-mythical historical figures like Poireiton, who is considered to be one of earliest colonizers of the valley, and Pakhangba, both the mythical and historical. It points out that Hindu missionaries probably started coming from as early as around 15th century.

The rulers Kiyamba and Charairongba welcomed Hinduism and were tolerant towards all the sects of Hinduism, buildings temples for Kali, Vishnu, etc. It was during the reign of Garibniwaz that there was friction not only between the sects following Vishnu and Ram, but also intolerance towards traditional religion in general.

Some changes he introduced in the kingdom such as burning the dead, and burying and destroying umang lai images did not produce as much reactionary repercussions as introducing Bengali scripts and burning of ancient manuscripts, the puyas (the author refers to as ‘Puranas’). According to the author, there are about 364 gods and 364 goddesses, not including the umang lais; some of the umang lais were ancestors who were deified in time. (This shows ancestor worship is deeply rooted in the society.)

The book covers many interesting stories, including how the reunion(?) of goddess Panthoibi and god Nongpok on the top of Langmai hill was celebrated by gods and goddesses, which became a part of Lai Haraoba celebration. The festival is covered in detail later in the book.

The rituals and their symbolism of how the spirits of various gods are summoned from the water body by the maibas and maibees (shamans) and kept in the temple and taken care of during the festival that lasts for weeks are given. The festival spread across the valley and evolved over a long period of time with many elements added to them.

The author has referred many manuscripts for sources of this book. For example, for the above story of Panthoibi, an old manuscript Laion Laichat was referred to along with Panthoibi Khongkul. This celebration originally celebrated by gods and goddesses on the top of the hill was later brought down and celebrated by men in the valley.

According to some authors, Princess Thoibi was one of the incarnations of Panthoibi. (In another place, the author points out Lai Haraoba of different places may be traced to different incidents.)

After covering stories of various other gods and goddesses like goddesses Phouoibi, a chapter is dedicated to the Manipuri language reflecting on its probable origins, giving the contradictory views of various scholars. A special character called anji is mentioned which is said to be found at the beginning of the texts in many puyas and denotes adoration of lord Shiva. After a short chapter on Manipuri culture that includes description of some children’s plays, the author takes up indigenous sports of Manipur.

Herein we find the author mention that mukna-jangjei is a dangerous game and fatalities have been reported in royal chronicles while playing this game.

The final chapter of the book is on coming of Vaishnavism in Manipur. The author describes in detail how Bhagyachandra opened a new chapter in Manipuri culture by bringing the Raas Leela in which his daughter Bimbati played the role of Radha, thus enriching the culture of Manipur.

As the author drawn from various sources, which are sometimes conflicting, I feel there are lapses in providing overall synthetic conclusions. But one can understand as the author has covered not just gods and goddesses but every conceivable aspect of Meitei culture and beliefs.