Hueiyen Rendezvous-3:: An evening of Khongjom Parva recital
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, April 28 2013: Continuing its effort towards promotion of dying indigenous musical and performing art forms of Manipur, Hueiyen Lanpao Columnists' Forum (HLCF) organized its Hueiyen Rendezvous-3 at the Literary Hall of Hueiyen Lanpao office building today facilitating an unforgettable mesmerizing performance of 'Khongjom Parva' by none other than the renowned exponent of the musical art form Laishram Mani Devi.

Living up to her name and fame, Laishram Mani Devi presented Khongjom Parva and enthralled the audience for almost one and a half hours, but still leaving the audience wanting for more.

Speaking as a prelude to the performance, President of HLCF B Jayentakumar Sharma noted that despite being one of the most popular musical art forms of Manipur inciting the spirit of patriotism and nationalism among the people at one time, Khongjom Parva is dying today and finding no taker.

So, there is an urgent need to promote this art form specially among the younger generation.

An evening of Khongjom Parva recital

In this regard, every local club can also contribute their mite and invite Khongjom Parva artistes for performance at every possible occasion to encourage the young people to listen and appreciate this musical art form as well, he suggested.

Jayentakumar went on to explain that Khongjom Parva is one such indigenous musical art form which is closely associated with the history of Manipur.

The episodes related to Anglo-Manipur war of 1891 are sung and narrated by the artistes bringing alive the courage and bravery shown by the Manipuri soldiers against the mighty British forces in the last battle for safeguarding the independence of Manipur.

It is because of the existence of Khongjom Parva that Khongjom War still remains in the minds of the people, and so we need to preserve and promote this unique musical art form, he reiterated.

It may be noted here that the origin of Khongjom Parva as a musical art form has been credited to one Samjetsabam Leinou, who was popularly known as Dhobi Leinou.

It is said that after the great Khongjom battle fought between the Manipuri soldiers and the British forces, Leinou started narrating the eye-witnessed accounts of war with heartrending lamentations in the form of a song and it latter on became popular among the people as a unique indigenous musical art form.

During the early days, there were many lovers and listeners for Khongjom Parva recitals, which were normally hosted on various occasions like feast, festival and the like.

But with declining patronage and listeners, performance of Khongjom Parva has declined drastically, thus, making the indigenous musical art form slowing disappearing from the minds of the people.

In the interaction with the audience that followed her performance, Laishram Mani Devi informed that she started learning the art of signing Khongjom Parva at the age of 12 years from her teacher Ibeni, another renowned Khongjom Parva singer of her time.

When she started accompanying her teacher and started giving performance, Khongjom Parva was so popular that they used to get invitation from different parts of the State and outside and performances lasted for days and weeks.

While lamenting over the present status of Khongjom Parva which calls for immediate attention of the Government and other related authorities, she also informed that normally girls come to learn Khongjom Parva than boys these days.

However, after learning the art form for some time, the girls get married and failed to come back.