Marjit Singh | |
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Vassal king of Manipur | |
Reign | r. 1812–1819 |
Predecessor | Chourjit Singh |
Successor | Bagyidaw (King of Burma) |
Born | Kangleipak |
Died | Balush Ghat, Sylhet |
Dynasty | Ningthouja dynasty |
Father | Ching-Thang Khomba |
Kingdom of Manipur | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kings of Manipur | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Manipur monarchy data | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Meitei people |
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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. [1] [2] The Burmese devastated Manipur during a seven-year occupation that came to be known as Chahi-Taret Khuntakpa .
Marjit Singh was a son of Raja Ching-Thang Khomba (Bhagyachandra), the ruler up to 1798. Afterwards, his numerous sons fought for the throne. [3]
Madhuchandra succeeded his father at first. He fled to Cachar when the Burmese threatened the kingdom. He tried to regain it with the help of the Cachar king Govinda Chandra. However, he was killed by the troops of his brother, Chourjit Singh. During Chourjit Singh's reign, Marjit Singh fled to Cachar and got into a serious dispute there. Then he went to Burma in 1806 and received the help of King Bodawpaya in 1812. Bodawpaya sent a Burmese force, expelled Chourjit Singh and installed Marjit Singh as a vassal king. Marjit Singh also ceded the Kabaw Valley to Burma in return for the favour. [4] [5]
Marjit Singh ascended to the throne in 1812. Chourjit Singh, along with another brother Gambhir Singh, fled to Cachar. Govinda Chandra refused to help them against a brother, but Marjit Singh invaded Cachar anyway in 1817. Chourjit and Gambhir Singh helped Gonvda Chandra fend off Marjit Singh, but they in turn drove out Govinda Chandra, took over Cachar and plundered it. [6]
Marjit Singh and his nobles tried to replicate the luxurious habits they learnt at the Burmese court, with splendour in dress and cavalcades, which contrasted with the natural simplicity of Manipur. The people tolerated them only for fear of the Burmese. Marjit Singh is also said to have built a gilded palace, which was only allowed for the Burmese king. In 1819, when Bagyidaw succeeded Bodawpaya, Marjit Singh failed to attend his coronation. Bagyidaw, who had always supported Marjit Singh's entreaties in the past, was irked by the insubordination, and sent troops to reconquer Manipur. [7]
The Burmese drove out Marjit Singh and installed puppet rulers, supported by a permanent garrison stationed in Manipur. [8]
The Burmese occupation lasted until the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824, and became locally known as Chahi-Taret Khuntakpa . It devastated Manipur. According Pemberton, Manipur was 'doomed ... to the devastating visitation of Burmese armies which have nine or ten times swept the country from one extremity to the other, with the apparent determination of extirpating a race whom they found it impossible permanently to subdue.' [9]
Marjit Singh went to Cachar and joined his other brothers. The brothers divided Cachar among themselves, with Marjit occupying Hailakandi and Gambhir Singh taking control of South Cachar. Chourjit took shelter in Sylhet. [10]
In 1823, the Burmese invaded Cachar, and Gambhir Singh drove them back. In 1824, the British declared war against the Burmese, and the latter came back to invade Cachar with a force of 10,000 men. By this time the British had agreed to support Gambhir Singh with a force of 500 men and artillery. The combined British and Gambhir Singh forces fought the Burmese and drove them back to Manipur. [11]
The British decided to restore Cachar to Govinda Chandra, and appointed the three brothers to Manipur, with Chourjit Singh as the king, Marjit Singh as the heir apparent, and Gambhir Singh as the general. However, it is said that Chourjit and Marjit did not act, and so, Gambhir Singh was made king. He recovered Manipur from the Burmese and ascended the throne in 1825. [12]
Chourjit and Marjit were allowed to settle in British territory with a monthly allowance of one hundred rupees. Marjit Singh settled in Sylhet, and he died at Balush Ghat, in the south of the district. [13]
Cachardistrict is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao, Hailakandi, Karimganj, and the current Cachar district. Silchar is Cachar district's center of government.
Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of area, population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is located 343 kilometres south east of Guwahati. It was founded by Captain Thomas Fisher in 1832 when he shifted the headquarters of Cachar to Janiganj in Silchar. It earned the moniker "Island of Peace" from Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. Silchar is the site of the world's first polo club and the first competitive polo match. In 1985, an Air India flight from Kolkata to Silchar became the world's first all-women crew flight. Silchar was a tea town and Cachar club was the meeting point for tea planters.
The Treaty of Yandabo was the peace treaty that ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. The treaty was signed on 24 February 1826, nearly two years after the war formally broke out on 5 March 1824, by General Sir Archibald Campbell on the British side, and the Governor of Legaing Maha Min Hla Kyaw Htin from the Burmese side, without any due permission and consent of the Ahom kingdom, Kachari kingdom or the other territories covered in the treaty. With the British army at Yandabo village, only 80 km (50 mi) from the capital Ava, the Burmese were forced to accept the British terms without discussion.
There were three Burmese invasions of Assam between 1817 and 1826, during which time the Kingdom of Assam came under the control of Burma from 1821 to 1825. Locally, this period, called the manor din by the people of Assam, is remembered with horror. The sharp drop in population due both to depredations as well emigrations left the erstwhile kingdom in shambles. It was the climactic period of the Ahom kingdom. The British, who were earlier reluctant to colonise Assam, came into direct contact with a belligerent Burmese occupying force. Following the First Anglo-Burmese War they annexed Assam and took Manipur as a subsidiary state.
Bagyidaw was the seventh king of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma from 1819 until his abdication in 1837. Prince of Sagaing, as he was commonly known in his day, was selected as crown prince by his grandfather King Bodawpaya in 1808, and became king in 1819 after Bodawpaya's death. Bagyidaw moved the capital from Amarapura back to Ava in 1823.
General Maha Bandula was commander-in-chief of the Royal Burmese Armed Forces from 1821 until his death in 1825 in the First Anglo-Burmese War. Bandula was a key figure in the Konbaung dynasty's policy of expansionism in Manipur and Assam that ultimately resulted in the war and the beginning of the downfall of the dynasty. Nonetheless, the general, who died in action, is celebrated as a national hero by the Burmese for his resistance to the British. Today, some of the most prominent places in the country are named after him.
Gharib Niwaz was the ruler of the Manipur Kingdom, ruling from c. 1709 until his death in 1751. He introduced Hinduism as the state religion of his kingdom (1717) and changed the name of the kingdom from "Kangleipaak" to the Sanskrit Manipur (1724). He changed his royal name from his birth name Pamheipa to the Persianate "Gharib Niwaz". During most of his reign he was engaged in warfare against the weakened Burmese Toungoo Dynasty.
Ningthou Ching-Thang Khomba (1748–1799) was a Meitei monarch of the 18th century CE. He is known for having invented the Manipuri Raas Leela dance. His daughter played the role of Radha at the first performance and became a popular figure in Manipur. He is also credited with spreading Vaishnavism in Manipur State and thereby creating a unified Manipur. Much of his history is mythologized.
Chinglen Nongdrenkhomba (1788–1834), also known as Raja Gambhir Singh, was a ruler of the Manipur Kingdom.
Debindro Singh or Devendra Singh or Devendrajit Singh or Debendra Singh was a Manipuri King who ruled in 1850 for a period of only three months at the age of forty-seven. He ended the custom of paying bribes to chiefs to gain land in Manipur. He was the successor to, and brother of Nara Singh, the regent of Gambhir Singh. He was given the title of Raja by the British, but he was unpopular. After only three months Chandrakirti Singh invaded Manipur while Devendra Singh fled to Cachar.
The Kabaw Valley also known as Kubo valley is a highland valley in Myanmar's western Sagaing Division, close to the border with India's Manipur. The valley is located between Yomadong range of mountains, which constitute the present-day India–Myanmar border, and the Chindwin River.
Nara Singh also known as Chingthanglen Pamheiba and Meetingu Lairen Nonglen Sendreng Manik Khomba, was a ruler of the Kingdom of Manipur. He ruled first as regent from 1834 to 1844 and then as king for a period of six years from 1844 to 1850. His subjects called him ‘Eningthou Nungsiba’ or ‘our beloved king’.
The Ningthouja dynasty, also known as Mangang dynasty, comprises the descendants of the kings of Manipur. Ningthouja literally means progeny of King. It has 125 extended families. It was apparently founded by King Nongdā Lāiren Pākhangba in 33 CE.
Jogeswar Singha was installed as the king of Ahom kingdom in 1821 CE, by the Burmese. He was more or less a puppet in the hands of the Burmese, who held the real power of administration. His reign witnessed Burmese atrocities on the people of Assam and the attempts made by Chandrakanta Singha and Purandar Singha to expel Burmese invaders. Historians dispute regarding the date of his deposition from the throne, as some historians claimed that he was deposed by his Burmese masters, after they secured complete victory over the forces of Chandrakanta Singha in 1822 CE, while some sources claimed that he remained as a puppet ruler till termination of Burmese rule in Assam by British East India Company, in 1825 CE, during First Anglo-Burmese War.
The Manipur Kingdom, also known as Meckley, was an ancient kingdom at the India–Burma frontier. Historically, Manipur was an independent kingdom ruled by a Meitei dynasty. But it was also invaded and ruled over by Burmese kingdom at various point of time. It became a protectorate of the British East India Company from 1824, and a princely state of British Raj 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.
The Meitei people, also known as the Manipuri people, are a minority ethnic group in Myanmar. They are better known as the Kathe, Cassay, or Ponna in Myanmar. They number around 25,000 and reside mainly in the eastern states of Kachin and Shan, Yangon division, Sagaing division, Ayeyarwaddy division, etc.
Meitei people, also known as Manipuri people, is one of the minority ethnic groups of Bangladesh. They live mostly in the Sylhet division of the country. The Meitei of Bangladesh's population reached 15,000 in 2020
William McCulloch (1816–1885) was a British army and political officer in India. He served as the Political Agent for the Manipur Kingdom, a de facto British protectorate on the border with Burma, for a period of 27 years. He acquired an intimate knowledge of the land and the people of Manipur, publishing a book, Account of the Valley of Munnipore and of the Hill Tribes, which has been regarded as authoritative by later writers.
Robert Boileau Pemberton (1798–1840) was a British army officer and, later, a political officer in British India. As a Lieutenant, he was sent as a junior commander of the British-funded Manipur Levy provided to prince Gambhir Singh of Manipur. He was instrumental in evicting the Burmese from Manipur during the First Anglo-Burmese War. Later, he was appointed as a commissioner for Manipur along with Captain Grant and the two negotiated the boundary with the Burmese commissioners. Pemberton demarcated the boundary between Manipur and the Kabaw Valley, which was ceded to Burma after the negotiations. It came to be known as the "Pemberton's Line". Pemberton was noted as a distinguished geographer. He surveyed the territory of Manipur and the surrounding country, and wrote a book titled Report on the Eastern Frontier of British India in 1835, which is a valuable early historical reference on the states of northeast India as well as Burma.