Iratphu Latpa
( "a must" in all ceremonies )

By: N Mangi Devi *

The ritual of IRATPHU LATPA is essential and be "a must" in all ceremonies from birth to death of the human kind for the Meitei society.

What to do?

The ground has to be cleaned with simple water and over it sprinkle the flour of the raw rice and then draw a rectangular line making a knot on each end of four sides like a mandir and in the middle space a PALLANDABIPAPHAL will be drawn by small thin bamboo stick starting from south west and end at north west point that will have five corners.

And over it a nicely cutted round plantain leaf will place and on it some whole paddy will spread and above that the prepared Pulkangnanbi (earthern pot with high round neck) will put unmoved.

On the neck of Pulkangnanbi a garland of five or seven mango leaves will closely tide by thin bamboo thread (paya). And four small bamboo sticks will make stand on four sides of the "IRATPHU" (Pulkangnanbi ).

A sample of paphal

The tip of the four bamboo sticks will be made like arrow-tip by mango leaves. And those four sticks will bound together by raw threads.

The four sticks stand for the Gods of four directions, the Marjing, the Koubru, the Thangjing, the Wangbrel of the traditional Meitei.

And again the five corners of the PAPHAL indicate the powerful five elements of the universe say, sky, fire, wind, water and earth, the components of creation.

What is inside the IRATPHU?

The sacred water fetchs either from the river or pond will be poured up to 3/4 of the 'Pul' (Pulkangnanbi) and the articles to be put are :- 1. a scented fruit (Heijang).
2. a nicely sprouted ginger (shing-kagup) a sprouted whole pan (kwa-maton-chongba).
3. a ripe single banana (laphoi).
4. a coin (sen-mayek).
5. Langthrei-Maton-Ama (a kind of flower plant).
6. Sana-Lupa Konyai (gold and silver) or raw white and a red rice if gold and silver cannot be afforded.

After the coming of Hinduism this IRATPHU {Pulkangnanbi) is replaced by LOTA (khujai) made of either silver or copper or brass and the contents/articles of also been simplified and cut-short by putting only a ripe banana, a whole beetal nut and a whole leaf and a coin.

And instead of the flour of rice the wheat flour has been used and the drawing of 'PAPHAL' is placed by the vedic symbol of Hinduism. Thus one can see the synthesis of the old Manipuri tradition with that of Hinduism, yet the basic originality is still retained in all ceremonies of the Meitei society.

Here in lies the importance and significance of IRATPHU LATPA.

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* N Mangi Devi wrote this book entitled "Main Ceremonies of Meitei Society . This article was webcasted on December 22nd 2009.