The uniqueness of the Meiteis among all the mongoloids inhabiting in Asia - the east, north, south-east and the region comprising Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Manipur is that we are the only ones left among our stocks who give so much ultimate importance on the Dragon, i.e., Deities depicted in the forms of Dragons as the principal gods. There is a unique similarity between the Meiteis and the mongoloids in other parts of Asia apart from its genetic and other cultural ties they share. That unique similarity is: all of these people share the same basic faith of worshipping and celebrating Dragon, which the Meiteis worship as Pakhangba.

People in the regions mentioned above have followed other religions although many of them have still retained their religious faith in the Dragon in parallel to other religions they have adopted. But the Dragon occupies the cultural life of no other group as much as it does in our life. In fact it can be said that we are the sole survivors who have still retained the ancient belief without break. This is with reference to the Meiteis who continued to be Dragon worshippers and never adopted Hinduism. And I am proud of those brave people with dignity who knew the importance of our roots and upheld it for the posterity in spite of the various challenges they had to face.

No wonder, in spite of the harsh contradictions that have been faced by us, we still are able to retain and nourish our age-old beliefs. Apart from the forceful superimposition of Hinduism on us, we have not been influenced by any other religion spiritually. Hinduism, just the way it was imposed and thrusted on us, has never been the driving spiritual force in our life. Just as it was imposed on us, it is now going back to its place of origin the same way. In three hundred years or so of imposition of Hinduism, we have sanctified ourselves very quickly as compared to the usual time taken for cultural sanctity. This is due to various reasons. First, this religion was imposed on us without our willingness to convert, second, tears and humiliation were and have been the price paid for it, third, the Bengali Hindu priests who came to spread it sacrileged our beliefs and conscience and defrauded us, fourth, the cultural impact of the alien religion on our lives was only superficial because Pakhangba and Sanamahi continued to occupy the place of supreme importance in every household, and fifth, Hinduism is the very root cause for the fragmentation of the brotherhood between hill and valley people and now we would have lost everything to identify ourselves with had it not been due to the sincere efforts of the true followers of Sanamahi.

The idea put here does not mean to refute the fact that there are many other places where alien religions have worked out successfully. The basic difference between them and ours is that people in other places accepted those alien religions with their own free consent, most of the time, based upon the teachings and beauty of the religion. But in our case, we never accepted Hinduism with our free consent, be it in its name or value and there cannot be acceptance of a thing that is forced on somebody. What is imposed forcefully cannot be ratified by future acceptance. And this is why, Hinduism as it was forced on us has not been able to survive. What is imposed may be ratified by later acceptance in other walks of life but it will never work where conscience of the people is involved. Hinduism, it has prevailed for three hundred years in Manipur but it does not mean people have seemingly accepted it or that it has successfully survived in Manipur. This must be established from the way it came, how people accepted it, and how it has continued to be accepted by people. Prevalence is not the sole factor to determine the success of a thing, certain things must be considered, like, is it there because people want it, or is it there because people have no other way to remove it, e.g., a highly immoral person may still live in a community but it simply does not mean that he is accepted by the society because the society may have no other way of ousting him, or its presence is dwindling and is bound to die with time. In the first case, such prevalence can mean to be successful unless it results in the later two cases. Thus, as we are seeing in the present societal context, more and more people are, with rapid acceleration, returning to the age-old worship of the Dragon, abandoning Hinduism after realizing history and the indomitable place of the Dragon in our identity and lives. So, the prevalence of Hinduism in our society today is due to the above later two factors. It is bound to reduce to such an insignificant number of followers among the Meiteis that it will die out with time. No sensible person can go on embracing a belief which sacrileged his origin and root.

Our conscience, prior to and after Sanskritisation, has always been our Ebudhou Pakhangba, Lainingthou Sanamahi and Ebendhou Leimarel Sidabi. This is shown by the fact that, no matter how hard-liner a Meitei who follows Hinduism might be, there is always a place customarily preserved for Ebudhou Sanamahi and Leimrel Sidabi Ebendhou, at least. In any social ceremony, be it marriage or death ceremony or otherwise, even though the whole practice may entirely be based on Sankskrit, it always culminates at Lainingthou Sanamahi and the spiritual content remains our own. This conscience may be sub-conscious or conscious. Thus the truth remains that nothing can replace the place of these deities.

Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Burmese, other mongoloids in North, East and Southeast Asian countries follow Buddhism mainly and other religions, such as, Islam, Christianity, etc. What is common between these people and us is, as has been mentioned earlier, that apart from the common genetic and cultural identity, in our lives, there is a significant place for the Dragon. Like them we are also ancestral worshippers. This unique practice of ancestral worship has stemmed down from the ancient Chinese practice. Prior to the coming of alien religions to their culture, their principal God was the Dragon, who is the Ultimate in the region. They accepted these alien religions on their own ‘free will’ but this physical factor of ‘free will’ is not there in the imposition of Hinduism on us.

Like all the mongoloids, we wear the same dresses, although of different patterns, have the same basic food habits, speak the same pattern of language and have the same forms of martial arts. Historically and mythologically, we are related to them. We need to further concretize the relation between them and us and strengthen the seemingly now faint bond and find out who we are and where we have come from. This bond is indestructible, because it is our root, our origin and our family and this is the truth. And history has shown it and we know that there is no strength greater than the truth.


The author can be reached by email at keichanu@yahoo.com


Related Stories

Tell a Friend | Printable version | Post a Comment

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE

thoi meitei : SIDABA MAPUNA YAIPHARE A good article, please host more article frequently related to our religion. we the people ...

>> More Comments