Plants in Meitei culture

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This article is about the usage of plants specifically in Meitei culture. For the worldwide perspective, see Plants in culture.
Meetei Mayek
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Many pāmbīs (Meitei for 'plants')[1] play significant roles in the different elements of Meitei culture, including but not limited to Meitei cuisine, Meitei festivals, Meitei folklore, Meitei folktales, Meitei literature, Meitei mythology and Meitei religion (Sanamahism) of Kangleipak (Meitei for 'Manipur').

Arrangement of different plant items for a religious ritual in Meitei culture

Plants used in rites and rituals[edit]

Kushumlei/Kusumlei (Meitei for 'safflower') is used by the Meitei people for decorations during the Sajibu Cheiraoba (Meitei Lunar Near Year Day) celebrations.[2]

Kombirei (Meitei for 'Iris') is also used by the Meitei people for decorations during the Sajibu Cheiraoba (Meitei Lunar Near Year Day) celebrations. In Meitei culture, Kombirei flower represents love, life and death.[3][4] It is frequently mentioned in the Meitei folktales and folk songs.[5] In honor of this flowering plant species, the Government of Manipur, organises the "Kombirei Festival" every year, in the aim to preserve and conserve the natural habitats of ethnic flowers like Kombirei.[6][7]

Real plants mentioned in old texts[edit]

Cape jasmine description[edit]

Giving reference to Meitei King Khagemba and the Manipur Kingdom, the beauty and grace of Lei Kabok flower, also called Kabok Lei (Gardenia jasminoides, cape jasmine), is described by Meitei King Charairongba, in his book, the "Leiron", as follows:

It is a flower that remains ever fresh as not eaten by worms and is fondly sought after in the four corners of the country, eight directions, nay in all quarters. It is distinct for its beautiful shape, its tender stalk and for its pure white colour. It is a flower once nurtured by King Khagemba who preferred to take it with him even for his long home. It is a flower that comes handy to both boys and girls as a present of love. Such a luscious flower has blossomed forth in an unending array of white and definitely the season is of this flower.[8]

Real plants mentioned in folklore[edit]

Colocasia/Taro plantation folktale[edit]

The Meitei folktale of Hanuba Hanubi Paan Thaaba (Meitei for 'Old Man and Old Woman planting Colocasia' / 'Taro')

In Meitei mythology and Meitei folklore of Kangleipak (Meitei for 'Manipur'), Pān (Meitei for 'Colocasia' / 'Taro') plants are mentioned. In the Meitei folktale of the Hanuba Hanubi Paan Thaaba (Meitei for 'Old Man and Old Woman planting Colocasia' / 'Taro'),[9][10][11] an old aged lonely couple, who have no youths in their family, were deceived by some trickster monkeys, regarding the planting of the Colocasia/Taro plants in a very different unusual style of plantation.[12][13][14] The old couple agreed to do the monkeys' advices, peeling off the best tubers of the plants, then boiling them in a pot until softened and after cooling them off, wrapping them in banana leaves and putting them inside the soils of the grounds.[15][16] In the middle of the night, the monkeys secretly came into the farm and ate all the well cooked plants. After their eating, they (monkeys) planted some inedible giant wild plants in the place where the old couple had placed the cooked plant tubers. In the morning, the old couple were amazed to see the plants getting fully grown up just after one day of planting the tubers. They were unaware of the tricks of the monkeys. So, the old couple cooked and ate the inedible wild Taro plants. As a reaction of eating the wild plants, they suffered from the unbearable tingling sensation in their throats.[17][18][19]


Worship of a banyan tree inside the Kangla

Perspective of Mother nature[edit]

The "Hijan Hirao" (Old Manipuri: "Hichan Hilao"), an ancient Meitei language narrative poem, mentions that King Hongnem Luwang Ningthou Punshiba of Luwang dynasty once ordered his men for the cutting down a tree in the forest for crafting out a beautiful royal Hiyang Hiren. In accordance to the story, his servants found a big tree growing on the slope of a mountain and by the side of a river. They performed traditional customary rites and rituals before chopping off the tree on the following day. In the dead of the night, Mother nature started weeping in the fear of losing her dear child, the tree.[20][21][22] The painful lamentations of mother nature is described in the poem as follows:

At dead of night

The mother who begot the tree
And the mother of all giant trees,
The queen of the hill-range
And the mistress of the gorges
Took the tall and graceful tree
To her bosom and wailed:
"O my son, tall and big,
While yet an infant, a sapling
Didn't I tell you
To be an ordinary tree?

The king's men have found you out
And bought your life with gold and silver.
* * At daybreak, hacked at the trunk
You will be found lying prostrate.
No longer will you respond To your mother's call
Nor a likeness of you
Shall be found, when I survey
The whole hillside.

Who shall now relieve my grief?

— Hichan Hilao (Hijan Hirao)[23][24][25]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sharma, H. Surmangol (2006). "Learners' Manipuri-English dictionary". dsal.uchicago.edu (in Manipuri and English). University of Chicago. p. 115. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Kushumlei". Manipur Medicinal Plants. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  3. ^ Irengbam Mohendra Singh (24 March 2020). "Lamphel Nawa Kombirei - Traditional offering at Cheiraoba: The most romantic flower in Manipur". e-pao.net. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  4. ^ "Transplantation efforts on to save Manipur's indigenous flower 'Kombirei'". Imphal Free Press. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  5. ^ "Iris laevigata - Water Iris". Flowers of India. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  6. ^ "Dy CM inaugurates Kombirei Festival -2021". The Sangai Express. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  7. ^ "Kombirei Festival kicks off". Pothashang News. 12 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  8. ^ Singh, Ch Manihar (1996). A History of Manipuri Literature (in English and Manipuri). Sahitya Akademi. pp. 92, 93. ISBN 978-81-260-0086-9.
  9. ^ "Paan Thaba staged". Pothashang News. 16 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  10. ^ "Planting Taro: Subverting the Tale". Pothashang News. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  11. ^ B. Jayantakumar Sharma (8 August 2017). "Old Couple Plants Taro :: Hanuba-hanubi paan thaba Fungawari Singbul". E-pao. Translated by Akham Gautam Singh. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  12. ^ B. Jayantakumar Sharma; Chirom Rajketan Singh (2014). "The old couple and the taro plants". Folktales of Manipur. Translated by Kamaljit Chirom. Cultural Research Centre Manipur. p. 51. ISBN 978-93-83201-14-3.
  13. ^ Oinam, James (26 May 2016). "Hanube and Hanuba". New Folktales of Manipur. Notion Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-945400-70-4.
  14. ^ Oinam, James (26 May 2016). "Hanube and Hanuba". New Folktales of Manipur. Notion Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-945400-70-4.
  15. ^ B. Jayantakumar Sharma; Chirom Rajketan Singh (2014). "The old couple and the taro plants". Folktales of Manipur. Translated by Kamaljit Chirom. Cultural Research Centre Manipur. p. 52. ISBN 978-93-83201-14-3.
  16. ^ Oinam, James (26 May 2016). "Hanube and Hanuba". New Folktales of Manipur. Notion Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-945400-70-4.
  17. ^ B. Jayantakumar Sharma; Chirom Rajketan Singh (2014). "The old couple and the taro plants". Folktales of Manipur. Translated by Kamaljit Chirom. Cultural Research Centre Manipur. p. 53. ISBN 978-93-83201-14-3.
  18. ^ Oinam, James (26 May 2016). "Hanube and Hanuba". New Folktales of Manipur. Notion Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-945400-70-4.
  19. ^ Oinam, James (26 May 2016). "Hanube and Hanuba". New Folktales of Manipur. Notion Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-945400-70-4.
  20. ^ Singh, Ch Manihar (1996). A History of Manipuri Literature (in English and Manipuri). Sahitya Akademi. pp. 16, 17. ISBN 978-81-260-0086-9.
  21. ^ Datta, Bīrendranātha; Śarmā, Nabīnacandra (1994). A Handbook of Folklore Material of North-East India. India: Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art & Culture, Assam. p. 356.
  22. ^ Barua, Lalit Kumar (1999). Oral Tradition and Folk Heritage of North East India. India: Spectrum Publications. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-87502-02-9.
  23. ^ Singh, Ch Manihar (1996). A History of Manipuri Literature (in English and Manipuri). Sahitya Akademi. pp. 16, 17. ISBN 978-81-260-0086-9.
  24. ^ Datta, Bīrendranātha; Śarmā, Nabīnacandra (1994). A Handbook of Folklore Material of North-East India. India: Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art & Culture, Assam. p. 356.
  25. ^ Barua, Lalit Kumar (1999). Oral Tradition and Folk Heritage of North East India. India: Spectrum Publications. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-87502-02-9.
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