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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Court chronicle of the kings of Manipur}}<br />
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{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}<br />
{{Kingdom of Manipur}}<br />
'''''Cheitharol Kumbaba''''' or '''''Cheithalon Kumpapa''''' ('''''Ch. K.'''''), the "Royal Chronicle of Manipur", is a court chronicle of the kings of [[Manipur]], which claims to start from 33 CE and to cover the rule of 76 Kings until 1955.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=4}} The work of chronicling actually began during the reign of [[Senbi Kiyamba|King Kiyamba]] in 1485 CE.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|loc=p. 3: "The chronicle itself indicates that in the year 1485 CE King Kyampa began to keep the court chronicle in accurate detail, with the cheithapa method of dating after a meeting with the king of Pong, an ancient kingdom in what is now upper Myanmar."}} The earlier events were reconstructed later during the reign of [[Bhagyachandra]], presumably from oral sources or from scattered written records.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=4}} According to scholar [[Saroj Nalini Arambam Parratt|Saroj Nalini Parratt]], the earlier parts have relatively little detail but contain numerous inaccuracies.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|loc=p. 2: "It claims to trace the history back to 33 CE, though as we shall see the earlier part is problematic. Comparatively little has been written about the early history of Manipur, and what there is, is often inaccurate."}} But they are still said to be useful in reconstructing Manipur's early history.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=4}}<br />
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==Etymology==<br />
Ancient Meitei counting methods involved sticks (''chei'') being placed (''thapa'') to represent a base number. ''Kum'' signifies a period of time and ''paba'' is a verb meaning to read or reckon. The chronicle's title therefore connotes the "placing of sticks or using a base as a means of reckoning the period of time, the years" and is indicative of the Meitei approach to counting and recording.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=3}}<br />
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== Description ==<br />
The oldest extant version was copied in the early 19th century, under [[Ching-Thang Khomba]] (Bhagyachandra or Jai Singh), as "the former copy was no more available".<ref>“The Cheitharol Kumbaba or the royal chronicle has been the most valuable for historical investigations, as it professes to record all the important daily transactions and occurrences of the State.... By orders of Jai Singh this book was rewritten as the former copy was no more available then”. <br />
Jyotirmoy Roy, History Of Manipur, 1958, p. 8.</ref><br />
It is the main source for the [[List of Manipuri kings|list of pre-modern kings of Manipur]], tracing the genealogy of the ruling [[Ningthouja dynasty]] back to a ruler named Nongda Lairen Pakhangba, said to have ruled for more than a century, from 33&ndash;154 CE.<br />
It is to the Meiteis what the ''[[Buranji]]'' is to the [[Assamese people|Assamese]] and the ''[[Maha Yazawin|Yazawin]]'' to the [[Burma|Burmese]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Singh |first=Ch Manihar |title=A History of Manipuri Literature |year=2003 |publisher=Sahitya Akadami |location=New Delhi |isbn=9788126000869|pages=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yiBkAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><br />
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''Ch. K'' is regarded as the primary source concerning ancient and medieval Manipur. It dates the first king to 33 CE.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|pp=2,13}}{{sfnp|Sebastian, Cultural Fusion in a Religious Dance Drama|2019|pp=45-46}} However, the historical record herein up to the reign of [[Senbi Kiyamba|King Kyampa]] (1467–1508 CE) are noted to have been redrafted during the reign of [[Ching-Thang Khomba]] (Bhagyachandra) in the mid- to late-18th century because those leaves were "lost". This part of the chronicle remains particularly unreliable.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=4}} The kings of that period are assigned extraordinary spans of length, and there is a scarcity of objective information.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|pp=4, 13}}{{sfnp|Sebastian, Cultural Fusion in a Religious Dance Drama|2019|pp=46}} Saroj Nalili Parratt hypothesizes that many of these monarchs were probably borrowed from the cultural pantheon and interspersed with religious myths to fit into their collective memory of intra-clan conquests and legitimize the current rule by the Meitei.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|pp=5,13}} Parratt as well as [[Gangmumei Kamei]] suspect that the initiation date of 33 CE was arrived upon by the scribes via astrological calculations.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|pp=6}}<br />
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''Ch. K''. is also a Meitei chronicle – [[Meitei people|Meitei]] being one of the migrant clans, originally named Ningthouja, who (at some unknown point of time) assimilated others into a confederacy, and gained rulership of the monarchy – with the early sections being essentially themed on the expansion of the Meitei across the valley of Manipur and other exploits.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=4}}{{sfnp|Sebastian, Cultural Fusion in a Religious Dance Drama|2019|pp=57-58}}<br />
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==Bengali versions==<br />
''Cheitharol Kumbaba'' was transliterated to [[Bengali alphabet|Bengali]] script by Pundit Thongam Madhob Singh and published by Vishvabharati Mandir {{circa|1940}}. With [[Maharaja Churchand Singh]]'s permission, the chronicle was edited by L. Ibungohal Singh and Pundit [[N. Khelchandra Singh]] and published by the [[Manipuri Sahitya Parishad]] in 1967; this edited version is the Hindu-oriented version. The [[Sanamahism|Sanamahi]] followers (people of [[Kangleipak]]) do not want to consider the book edited by Khelchandra Singh as a final version as he added many words which are imported from Sanskrit and Hindi in his translation.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}<br />
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==English versions==<br />
In 1891, [[Major Maxwell]], the Political Agent of Manipur, instructed the court to translate the ''Cheitharol Kumbaba'' into English. The translation was carried out by a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] clerk named Mamacharan. It was edited and published by [[L. Joychandra Singh]] in 1995 under the title ''The Lost Kingdom''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=L. Joychandra |title=The Lost Kingdom |year=1995 |location=Imphal}}</ref><br />
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A Meitei scholar, [[Saroj Nalini Arambam Parratt|Saroj N. Arambam Parratt]], produced another English version of the Chronicle under the title ''The Court Chronicle of the Kings of Manipur: Cheitharon Kumpapa'' in 2005.{{sfnp|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005|p=3}} Parratt includes a facsimile of the original manuscript of the ''Cheitharol Kumbaba''. The ''Cheitharol Kumbaba'' adopted three chronological systems or eras: Kalyabda, [[Saka]] era, Chandrabda or Kangleipak era. From 1666 CE onwards, days of the week are mentioned in the ''Cheitharol Kumbaba''.<br />
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In 2010, Rajkumar Somorjit Sana produced an edited English version of the ''Cheitharol Kumbaba'' with the corresponding Western dates for each Meitei date under the title ''The Chronology of Meetei Monarchs'' (From 1666 CE to 1850 CE) (Imphal: Waikhom Ananda Meetei, 2010).<ref>{{cite book |last=Sana |first=Raj Kumar Somorjit |title=The Chronology of Meetei Monarchs: From 1666 CE to 1850 CE |date=19 September 2023 |publisher=Waikhom Ananda Meetei |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eybpM1KZjVoC |isbn=978-81-8465-210-9}}</ref> In 2012, Mr. Nepram Bihari, a retired bureaucrat of Manipur made another translation of ''Cheitharol Kumbaba'' into English. It took him 17 years to complete the task.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pisharoty |first=Sangeeta |title=Walk with the kings |newspaper=The Hindu |date=25 February 2012 |url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article2931958.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120228221916/http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article2931958.ece |archive-date=28 February 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[Kingdom of Pong]]<br />
*[[Meitei literature]]<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==References==<br />
* {{Cite book |first=Saroj Nalini Arambam |last=Parratt |title=The Court Chronicle of the Kings of Manipur: The Cheitharon Kumpapa, Volume 1 |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-34430-1 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDQ2HMmU8_MC |ref={{sfnref|Parratt, The Court Chronicle, Vol. 1|2005}}}}<br />
* {{Cite thesis |last=Sebastian |first=Rodney |title=Cultural Fusion in a Religious Dance Drama: Building the Sacred Body in the Manipuri Rāslīlās |date=2019 |publisher=University of Florida |id={{ProQuest|2464172212}} |ref={{sfnref|Sebastian, Cultural Fusion in a Religious Dance Drama|2019}}}}<br />
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{{Puyas}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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[[Category:Manipur Kingdom]]<br />
[[Category:Indian chronicles]]<br />
[[Category:Puyas (Meitei texts)]]</div>GeorgeNobbs1