Manipuri women show their commercial might

Khwairambandh Bazar, popularly known as Ima Market (mother’s market) or Nupi Keithel (female market). Located in the heart of Imphal city this market is unique as all the sellers are women alone. But, beware, Manipuri women are the no-nonsense kind... An article by Dhanya melody

BILASINI DEVI’S day begins early in the morning. She wakes up at 4 am, performs her household chores and then departs for Imphal, the capital city of the Northeastern state of Manipur by jeep. There she goes to Khwairambandh Bazaar where she sits in her little stall selling vegetables till late evening. She then goes home to prepare her family’s meals and retire for the night. She has to work really hard as her fisherman husband’s earnings are too meagre to support the six member family.

Merma Devi’s life is quite a comfortable one. She lives with her husband, two sons and daughters-in-law in a posh locality of Imphal. As in countless Manipuri households the daughters-in-law share the burden of almost every household duty between themselves, leaving Mema with loads of time on her hands. Rather than waste it at home the latter prefers to go to Khwairambandh Bazar at 10 every morning, and sits in her stall selling “phaneks” or the skirts worn by Manipuri women. She exchanges gossip with her friends, chews “kwa” or paan and is content with life.

These two women are only two instances of the hundreds of women sitting in Khwairambandh Bazar, popularly known as Ima Market (mother’s market) or Nupi Keithel (female market). Located in the heart of Imphal city this market is unique as all the sellers are women alone. One gets almost everything the heart desires from fish and vegetables to exquisitely embroidered shawls and beautiful crockery. A walk through this market is an experience in itself. The market is on the ‘must see’ list of every tourist who comes to Imphal.

Manipuri women show their commercial might
Manipur boasts of strong woman power. The ‘Nupi Lan’ (Dec 12) was a famous uprising of common, mostly unlettered Manipuri women against the all-powerful British rule. A monument in the town square in Imphal commemorates this incident.

Manipuri women are also called ‘meira paibis’ or torch bearers as they come out with flaming torches to protest against unlawful incidents. Women stand for panchayat elections, sit on councils and are also extremely hardworking within the house.

I recall my grandfather’s anecdote regarding a colleague’s visit to Ima Market and his shock at witnessing the slapping of a persistent and unruly bargainer by a woman stall-keeper. Manipuri women are the no-nonsense kind. But they are also very gentle with children and very religious. In Ima Market one may see women like Bilasini Devi who are there to eke out a living sitting side by side with well-off women trying to kill boredom. Whatever the case this is woman-power at its peak.

In a world, particularly a country like ours where dowry deaths, female foeticide, discrimination against women and other crimes against women seem to be on the rise, Ima Market stands out like a beacon, a tower of female strength. May the power of women -- the power of the Mother Goddess rise and many more Ima Markets come about.


Courtesy: http://www.merinews.com/

Why Durga Puja ?

It is a sad case that this ten-armed weapon holding goddess of local Bangali and Assamese(note that Durga is celebrated only in west bengal and some other Bengali
localities of Tripura, Assam and Bangladesh) people becoming the most important
festival for Bishnupriya Manipuris day by day. This is against the thought and philosophy of our ancestors and also much against the very philosophy of Gaudiya Vaishnavism our people adopted. There are solid reasons to oppose the observance of Durga -

a) According to philosophy of Chaitanya Vaishnavism nothing short of prem(love of god) can give us the pure state of salvation. The ultimate aim and purpose of human life is the attainment of the spiritual form of Krisha. I had asked some ISKON gurus and devotees they told me that when you are devoting toward the Lord himself, you dont need anymore devotion toward any shakti like Durga, Kali, or whatever.

b) Durga is a meat-eating blood-thirsty deity, so Durga puja require animal sacrifices, which cannot be carried out by a non-meat-eater conservative manipuri Vaishnav.

c) Durga celebration is very costly, expensive and going to become costlier day by day. Even in the rural areas the picture is very terrifying. A community with a very low average income spending 50/60 thousands of taka or even more money for observing a very unimportant ritual of vaishnavism with a luxuries manner. Whats the benefit we get from that? Our eminent great leader late Bimal Singha was against the celebration of Bengali custom Durga puja.

d) Only handful of brahmins benifits from Durga puja and they succseed in keeping alive the pourahit rules.

Durga orininated from Saivism and historical materials available till date doesnt give us any proof about Saivism or the phallus cult of Indus valley at Manipur before 18th century. The main tanets of Saivism, viz, Pati, Pasu and Pasa are lacking in Manipuri thouht. No kapalikas,Kanphates, Aghories, Bahikathas found in either in Manipur or in our people ever.Saktism also a very recent origin, came to occupy our religion by the hands of some manipuri brahmins by misidentifying manipuri traditional goddess Nompok-Panthoibi/ Leimaren /Imagithani with Durga. Apart this none of our folklore suggests that our forefathers ever had any pronounced worship of male/female reproductive organ together with shakti which was a local culture of tantric hindu people of Bengal.

Just give me one good reason why should we continue worshipping the mayang goddess Durga?

Chaturtho Mongol for IDIOTS!!

I am just being unable to restrain myself from notifying about the observance of "Chaturtho Mongol" in the 4th day of marriage, which is going to take a important place in Bishnupriya Manipuri marriage schema. As far as I know, "Chaturtho Mongol" is completely Bengali or Mayang origin and it's very unreasonable and ridiculous to import a culture which doesn't have any cultural significance to us. It is a disappointment that some people instead of learning our own culture and feeling proud of it, running after the mayangs, stimulating by the attitude that "anything mayang is great!"

I think, our marriage observances and rituals are very sensible, colorful and gorgeous, even more gorgeous than any mayang marrriage, particularly customs like Waroupath, Heijapath, Lohong, Koina Thilkarani,Tindinkar Chana, Pachor bat are very fascinating. I feel proud of our very forefathers who build a rigid foundation considering every aspects of living in a civil way. And the rules are so logical and scientific, duhan ritir kotha ehanat na-matle na choler -

i) Daan'e-Udani: lohongor dine gang-goror manu'e koinagorang rupa daan'e ditara, ehan koinagor malok/bapokor kaje dangor arthik sahajya ahan matani yakorer, kungoi koti dila ehanou lehiya thoitara jate porobortite uta althok dena sombhob or.

ii) Polleng Chana: lohongor dine damangorang marup-machang baro attiyo sojone polleng chana uhan amar Bishnupriya Manipurir ritihan. Ehan damangor kaja , bisesh koriya leirapa utarkaje dangor arthik panglak ahan.

Ebaka Choturtho Mongol buliya je nuwa kumei ahan hanjasi uhante kitarhan, kittaou nagoi, misti plate ahan khaweya khuttol panar bebsayik buddhihan, jehan Bangali'ye kortara. Esade osustho sonskritir cholte thaile akdin Daane-Udani baro Polleng-Chana' r osade riti uthiya jitoiga, kiyabulle manu agor pokkhe habihanit ongso nenar arthik songoti nao thaite pare.

I just pity the idiots, the so called modern idiots, cant they live with self dignity? And our scholars, social leader may be renowned in their respective field, but they have no right to misled future generation, why they want themselves to be identified with the mayangs?

We don't need cultural adoption any more, we are okay with what we are. Our forefathers were very civilized people and they had built a good foundation for us; it's our time to build a house on that. Let us ban all reckless and idiotic activities like "Choturtho Mongol", which can be a threat in preserving our own way of living.