Manipur is a state in northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanmar, Sagaing Region to the east and Chin State to the south. The state covers an area of 22,327 square kilometres (8,621 sq mi). The official and most widely spoken language is Meitei language. Native to the Meitei people, it is also used as a lingua franca by smaller communities, who speak a variety of other Sino-Tibetan languages. Manipur has been at the crossroads of Asian economic and cultural exchange for more than 2,500 years. It connects the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia to Southeast Asia, East Asia, Siberia, regions in the Arctic, Micronesia and Polynesia enabling migration of people, cultures and religions.
Meitei, also known as Manipuri, is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is spoken by around 1.8 million people, predominantly in the state of Manipur, but also by smaller communities in the rest of the country and in parts of neighbouring Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is native to the Meitei people, and within Manipur, it serves as an official language and a lingua franca. It was used as a court language in the historic Manipur Kingdom and is presently included among the 22 scheduled languages of India.
The Meitei script, also known as the Meetei script, is an abugida used for the Meitei language, the official language of Manipur state and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. It is also popularly known as the Kanglei script and the Kok Sam Lai script. Its earliest known evidence of existence dates back to the 6th century AD coins, engraving the Meitei letters, as verified by the various publications of the National Sahitya Akademi. It was used until the 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali alphabet. A few manuscripts survive. In the 20th century, the script has experienced a resurgence, and is again being used. Starting from 2021, Meitei script was officially used by the Government of Manipur, along with the Bengali-Assamese script, to write the Meitei language, as per "The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021".
Charairongba also known as "Eningthou Ningthem Charairongba" was the Meitei king and the ruler of Kangleipak from 1697 to 1709.
Samjai Khurai-Lakpa was a Meitei royal. He was the son of Pamheiba and father of Bhagya Chandra. He was assassinated by his brother Chitsai in 1751 C.E.
Madu Chandra was a Meitei royal who ruled between 1801 and 1806. He fought for power during the dynastic squabbles in Manipur after the death of Ching-Thang Khomba.
Marjit Singh was a Meitei king who ruled Manipur kingdom between 1812 and 1819 as a vassal of Burma, but was eventually expelled by the Burmese. The Burmese devastated Manipur during a seven-year occupation that came to be known as Chahi-Taret Khuntakpa.
Koirengba was a Meitei king in the early 16th century who ruled between 1507 and 1511.
Tikendrajit Singh, also known as Koireng, was a crown prince of Kangleipak in present-day northeastern India, which was a protectorate of British Raj at that time. Tikendrajit was the commander of the Manipuri army and engineered a palace revolution that led to the events known as the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891 or the Manipur Expedition.
Maharaja Surachandra Singh was a Meitei King and a Maharaja of Kangleipak, who ruled between 1886 and 1890. He became the Raja of Manipur in May, 1886 after his father Raja Chandrakirti Singh died.
Maharaja Chandrakirti Singh was a Meitei monarch and the Maharaja of Manipur Kingdom. He was the son of Maharaja Gambhir Singh.
Meitei literature, also known as Manipuri literature, is literature written in the Meitei language of Manipur. An ancient institution of learning, the Luwang Nonghumsang, later known as the Pandit Loishang, collected sources of indigenous Meitei knowledge and philosophy until the 18th century. Writing by Meiteis is assumed to go back to the Kingdom of Kangleipak in the early 12th century. The Meitei script is a Brahmic abugida. It is known only from the Puya manuscripts discovered in the first half of the 20th century. Manuscripts of the 18th and 19th centuries were written using the Bengali alphabet. The existence of the Meitei script in the 15th-century hinges on the authenticity of an inscription dated to the reign of Senbi Kiyamba. The first printed Manipuri book, Manipurer Itihas, appeared in 1890 from the Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta. Though the kings of Manipur had established contact with the British from the middle of the eighteenth century onward the real impact of the contact came much later. Johnstone Middle English School, based on the western system of education, was started in 1885 at Imphal, and in 1891 Manipur lost its independence to the British. British domination facilitated the introduction of new systems in the civil, political and educational spheres, which hastened the process of modernization in Manipur, exposed as it was to new ideas and influences.
Kulachandra Singh was a Meitei monarch and the Maharaja of Manipur kingdom. He was a son of Maharaja Chandrakriti.
The Manipur Kingdom was an ancient independent kingdom at the India–Burma frontier that was in subsidiary alliance with British India from 1824, and became a princely state in 1891. It bordered Assam Province in the west and British Burma in the east, and in the 20th century covered an area of 22,327 square kilometres and contained 467 villages. The capital of the state was Imphal.
Maharaja Sir Meidingngu Churachand, also known as Churachandra or Chura Chand (1886–1941), was a Meitei King and a Maharaja of Kangleipak. He ascended the throne after his predecessor Kulachandra Singh was jailed. He was a 5-year-old boy when he was placed on the throne on 22 September 1891, after the troubles of the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891. In 1907, he was formally declared king, after completing education at Mayo College.
Ningthoukhongjam Khelchandra Singh was an Indian writer, lexicographer and historian, known as the author of Manipuri to Manipuri and English, the first modern general dictionary in Meitei language, which was published in 1964. He was a fellow of the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1987.
Meitei folklore is the folklore and mythology of the Meitei people of Manipur, India.
Meitei nationalism refers to nationalism among the Meitei people. In the Meitei context this includes various movements throughout history to sustain Meitei cultural identity, political boundary, ethnicity and history to regain sovereign state status of Kangleipak.
In Meitei mythology and religion, Kangla Sa, also spelled as Kangla Sha, is a guardian dragon lion. It has a lion's body and a dragon's head, with two horns. It is considered sacred to the Meitei heritage. It is a royal symbol of the Meitei royalties . The most remarkable statues dedicated to "Kangla Sa" stand inside the Kangla.
