Refashioning Kingship in Manipur in the 18th Century: The Politico-Religious Projects of Garibniwaz and Bhāgyacandra

Rodney Sebastian

doi:10.3390/rel12121041

Abstract

In the 18th century, Manipuri kings Garibniwaz and Bhāgyacandra sought to transform the indigenous religious landscape to absorb Vaiṣṇava beliefs and practices due to increasing contact with other Indian states and hostilities with Burma. Garibniwaz aligned himself with the Rāmānandī Vaiṣṇava tradition because he saw it as an effective way to increase his military prowess. He refashioned kingship to portray himself as a warrior king and a devotee of Rāmā. However, he met with resistance from other royal elites for oppressing the indigenous religious practices of Manipur. In contrast, Bhāgyacandra aligned himself with the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition and established his sovereignty on the basis of being a devotee of Krishna and patron of the indigenous gods. By carefully curating a hybrid religious schema, he was able to refashion Manipur kingship for generations to come. I compare the two strategies of negotiating transculturation and sociopolitical transformation and show that the latter approach proved more successful in the long term because it allowed a more organic unification of religious and political factions.

Highlights

In this article, I discuss the fashioning of kingship and sovereignty in the NortheastIndian state of Manipur from the mid to late 18th century, a period of radical change, that had enduring effects on Manipur’s religious and political landscape
For the survival of their state and their own sovereignty, they invoked religious paradigms that ranged from their indigenous religious tradition (Meitei) to various forms of Vais.n.avism
The death of Garibniwaz ended the influence of the Rāmānandıtradition in Manipur. The new practices he introduced such as the usage of Bengali script, the worship of Vais.n.ava deities in temples, the production of sacred texts such as the Mahābhārata, Rāmāyan.a, and Bhāgavata Purān.a, and the sanskritization of Meitei festivals laid the foundations on which subsequent kingdoms in Manipur built their sovereignty

Summary

Introduction

I discuss the fashioning of kingship and sovereignty in the Northeast. For the survival of their state and their own sovereignty, they invoked religious paradigms that ranged from their indigenous religious tradition (Meitei) to various forms of Vais.n.avism The effects of their policies are still felt today in Manipur’s political relationship with India’s central government, internal debates about Manipur’s identity, and aesthetic cultural productions from the state. Bhāgyacandra reconstituted Manipuri sovereignty to a devotee-patron of a hybrid Gaud.ıya Vais.n.ava and Meitei state. He did this to form political alliances with the Vais.n.ava Ahom (Assamese) kingdom to reclaim Manipur from Burmese rule and to ease tensions between the indigenous Meitei tradition and incoming Vais.n.ava traditions. The organization of the article is as follows: First, I will discuss the pre-Vais.n.ava religion of Manipur, which I refer to as the Meitei religion, to compare its rituals and social structure with the reformations undertaken by Garibniwaz and Bhāgyacandra. I close by comparing and contrasting the two modes of articulating religio-political authority and what they tell us about the stability and durability of sovereignty

Indigenous Meitei Religion of Manipur

Contact with Hindu Traditions

Garibniwaz—Warrior King

Bhāgyacandra—The Devotee King

Findings

Conclusions