The Real Purenba

James Oinam *

An illustration for 'The Real Purenba'

Myths have been woven around historical figures and incidents all over the world. What was considered to be mythology only became historical mythology when archaeologists dug up the remains of the Trozan War. Ancient Manipuri literature also employed this art-form.

How the king Pakhangba has become a divinity in literature is well known. But there are perhaps others that may yet still be discovered. The mythical Purenba, the father of Khamba and Khamnu, seems to have been inspired by a historical figure Pureiromba.

One can begin with the resemblance in the name itself. Below are the stories of the two compared for metaphorical and factual/historical similarities, as one can note some historical facts have been left intact in the mythology.

According to Ch. Manihar Singh (A History of Manipuri Literature), Purenba is of royal blood. He had two brothers. A feud broke out over a lost pearl in which one brother killed his other brother. The real reason was accession to throne as usually the one who is able to claim it by force was accepted as the king.

Purenba therefore fled for his life to Moirang and became a khullakpa under the Moirang king. On the other hand, the historical Pureiromba was married to Yabirok, who was married to two other husbands (she belonged to a polyandrous tribe). Pureiromba, who became the leader of Moirang tribe, was chased away by his brother Luwang Punsiba to be the father of the historical Pakhangba (source: N. Khagendra, Land of Gods and Goddesses).

That Purenba is an ordinary soldier and not a leader of Moirang in the myth may be because the plot of the story required it to be so. But Purenba was much braver than any other soldier. When he went hunting with the Moirang king, suddenly some tigers appeared from the reeds.

While other soldiers fled for their lives leaving the king, Purenba stayed back and fought the tigers single-handedly. Here one wonder if Purenba ran from his kingdom out of fear or whether he ran away because he did not want to fight his own brother to death for a throne.

Purenba submitted to fate or was too shy to ask the king or his friends to help his children financially when he knew he was about to die. His children lived in poverty when he died. (Thoibi, when she knew Khamba was the son of a worthy khullakpa Purenba, tells the king he should have built a house for Khamba and Khamnu and should have given food to them. This shows that if Purenba had asked the king for help, he would have felt an obligation to do so.)

This should not be construed as Purenba's negligence towards his children because he engaged his daughter Khamnu to Feiroijamba before he died to secure her future. Of course, her consent was sought by Feiroijamba's father before the marriage could take place.

Even though the historical Pureiromba was chased away by his brother, he was magnanimous and relations between Moirang and Magang (later renamed Ningthouja) did not suffer because of that. The nature of Purenba and Pureiromba is somewhat similar in this respect (forgiving nature).

Purenba's son Khamba marries the princess Thoibi, thereby becoming royal. As Pureiromba was in polyandrous relationship, we cannot say if he was the biological father of Pakhangba, the first monarch of Manipur. In the myth, Khamba is not crowned king. But he was bestowed qualities that are required to claim kingship.

Khamba's mother was a haloi, a spirit. Hence, Khamba is not just of royal blood from his father, he also has something of supernatural from his mother's side. Divinity is often invoked to earn moral right to kingship (refer Descent of the Scion of Sorarel on the Earth: Book Review on this website). This inevitably leads to equating Khamba and Pakhangba.

Pakhangba belonged to Magang, under which all other clans were brought together. However, strong underlying blood bond and kinship played a big role in this unification rather than high-handed subjugation.

Pakhangba was defeated by Khaba Nongchengba. He fled to Moirang. Only after Khaba was defeated and killed by Moirang leaders, Pakhangba was installed at Kangla as the king (N. Khagendra, Land of Gods and Goddesses).