Shamu Khongyetpa: What Am I?
James Oinam *
An illustration of 'Shamu Khongyetpa: What Am I?' by James Oinam
In the Khamba–Thoibi story, Khamba dies of being trampled by an elephant set after him by Nongban. Khamnu, the elder sister of Khamba, calls back the six souls into his body to resurrect him back to life.
One of the souls, according to the mythology, is mi (thawai manga, mi-ga thana taruk, meaning the five souls, six including the mi).
The five souls are, just as in the Western and Eastern beliefs, the earth, fire, air (sky), etc. The English word human comes from humus, which means the earth. Upon death, our body turns into earth.
This must have led to the belief our body has humus/earth in it. Warmth of our body must have given people the idea that our body has fire in it.
The other elements of human soul were similarly derived. The sixth soul 'mi' in the Khamba–Thoibi mythology can mean the shadow or the consciousness (the ego). This is specific to Meetei belief (unlike the five souls of the Hindu).
In the sentence like 'mi-na haiba taba' (to listen to me/him/her/them), this rare usage can be seen. I think this duality (homonymy) in meaning of the word mi is played out in the mythology.
In the oral version of the story I heard as a child, the impetuous Thonglen beheads the shadow of Purenba, not knowing it is his friend, which results in the death of Purenba the following day. In this, the sixth soul mi is interpreted as the shadow.
In the other metaphorical sense, death of the mi (lost of consciousness, interpreting mi as consciousness) would mean entering into a coma. A person in a coma probably has few days to live - for the human organs to die.
Our ancestors correctly deduced that our consciousness resides in our forehead. The forehead is called lai-pak (lai = god, pak = attached) in Manipuri.
The frontal lobe of our brain (near forehead) controls our consciousness. From this, one cannot help noticing that our ancestors equated lai (god) with consciousness.
Take lai-thibi-sanaba (lai = god, thiba = search, sanaba = play), which is Manipuri word for playing dolls, for instance. Making a non-living doll do things at will is imitating consciousness (god) because it is the consciousness (mi) that makes our body do things.
It is therefore an activity which asks the question: What is consciousness (or god)? In the expression 'lai-rik heiraga lai-su yaodaba' (literally, to be literate but devoid of godliness), the word lai (god) is used for noble qualities (broadmindedness, virtuous, honest, etc.), which one acquires through education.
If we follow this chain of thought, then the Meetei belief that in olden days men and gods used to live together would metaphorically mean that in the olden days a lot of people were virtuous, honest and broadminded, resulting in god-like people living along with the ordinary people.
Our ancestors have done a remarkable job of finding out what we are, given the knowledge and other technical constraints they were under, and weaving remarkable stories around it. They were logical and scientific in their own way.
I think we should continue that tradition and break new grounds in terms of our knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our environment, and yes, weave new stories.
* James Oinam wrote this article for e-pao.net
The author is a copyeditor at SAGE Publishing, Delhi. He is the author of the self-published book New Folktales of Manipur (published by Notion Press). Contact: jamesoinam(AT)gmail(DOT)com This article was webcasted on August 04, 2016.
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