Shri Govindajee: The Temple Where Manipuri Dance Was Invented

The Ras Lila of Manipur is the form, and it is worth describing because it is unlike the other classical dances.

What it is:

• A devotional dance drama on the Krishna and Radha theme
• Performed at the temple, in the mandapa, through the night
• With the deity present and the performance addressed to the deity
• Not a stage performance in origin, though it is now also performed on stage

The five principal Ras:

• Maha Ras, at Kartik Purnima, the full moon of Kartika
• Basanta Ras, in spring, at the Chaitra full moon
• Kunja Ras, at Ashwin
• Nitya Ras, which may be performed at any time
• Diba Ras, performed in daytime

The style. This is what distinguishes Manipuri from the other classical forms.

• The movements are rounded, flowing and continuous, with no sharp angles
• There is no stamping. The feet touch the floor softly and the classical forms' emphatic footwork is absent
• The body moves in curves, with a characteristic figure of eight motion
• The face is comparatively restrained. The elaborate facial abhinaya of Bharatanatyam and Kathakali is not the emphasis
• The veil is used, and the female dancers' faces are frequently partly covered
• The overall effect is soft, sustained and lyrical rather than percussive

The costume. It is among the most distinctive in Indian dance.

• The potloi or kumin, a stiff, barrel shaped, richly decorated skirt worn by the female dancer playing Radha and the gopis
• It is heavily embroidered with mirrors and metallic thread
• A translucent veil over the face
• The stiffness of the skirt means the legs are entirely concealed and the dancer appears to glide
• The Krishna dancer wears a yellow dhoti and a peacock feather crown

Why the potloi matters. The costume determines the movement.

A dancer in a rigid barrel skirt cannot do footwork, cannot extend the legs, and cannot use the lower body in the way other forms do.

What she can do is move the torso, arms and head in continuous curves and appear to float. The form's aesthetic follows from the costume, or the costume was designed for the aesthetic, and either way they are inseparable.

Sankirtana:

• The male performance tradition, of drumming and singing
• The pung, the Manipuri drum, played while dancing, which produces the pung cholom, an acrobatic drum dance
• The kartal cholom, the cymbal dance
• The Sankirtana of Manipur was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013

Pung cholom deserves a note. Male dancers play a drum slung at the waist while performing leaps, spins and floor work of considerable athleticism, without losing the rhythm.

It is among the most physically demanding things in Indian performance and it is performed in temples as worship.

Where the dance sits in the eight. India's classical dance forms, as generally listed:

• Bharatanatyam, Tamil Nadu
• Kathak, north India
• Kathakali, Kerala
• Kuchipudi, Andhra Pradesh
• Odissi, Odisha
• Manipuri, Manipur
• Mohiniyattam, Kerala
• Sattriya, Assam, described in the Tezpur entry

Two of the eight are from the northeast, which is not what most people assume, and both, Manipuri and Sattriya, are Vaishnava devotional forms created within the tradition rather than adapted into it.

Manipur's religious history involves a substantial and contested change, and a guide should set it out honestly.

Before Vaishnavism:

• The Meitei people of the Manipur valley had, and have, their own religion, generally called Sanamahism or Meiteism
• Its principal deities include Lainingthou Sanamahi, Leimarel Sidabi, Pakhangba and the Umang Lai, the forest deities
• The Umang Lai Haraoba, the pleasing of the forest deities, is its central festival, involving ritual, dance and the maibi, the female ritual specialist
• The Puya, the traditional texts, are its scripture
• It has its own script, Meitei Mayek

The Vaishnava conversion:

• Vaishnavism entered Manipur from the sixteenth century onward, from Bengal and Assam, in the Gaudiya tradition of Chaitanya
• Maharaja Garibniwaz, in the early eighteenth century, adopted Vaishnavism and made it the state religion
• Bhagyachandra consolidated it and created the Ras Lila
• The court, and substantially the population, became Vaishnava

What happened to the older tradition. This is the contested part and it should be stated accurately.

• Under Garibniwaz, there was suppression of the older religion
• The Puya Meithaba, the burning of the traditional texts, is recorded as having taken place in 1729, in which the Puyas were burned
• Traditional practices were discouraged or prohibited
• The Meitei Mayek script fell out of use in favour of Bengali script
• Sanamahi practice nonetheless continued, in households and in the Umang Lai shrines, alongside Vaishnavism

The revival. From the twentieth century onward there has been a substantial movement to restore the pre Vaishnava tradition.

• The Sanamahi revivalist movement, from the early twentieth century
• Campaigns for the restoration of Meitei Mayek, which has been reintroduced in schools and is now official
• Reassertion of Sanamahi practice and of the Umang Lai Haraoba
• Some have formally left Hinduism for Sanamahism in census terms
• The Puya Meithaba is commemorated annually as a day of mourning

How to write about this. Carefully, because it is live and because people hold strong positions.

What can be said:

• The Meitei had an indigenous religion which was substantially displaced by Vaishnavism from the eighteenth century
• That displacement involved coercion, and the burning of texts is recorded
• Vaishnavism also produced things of great value, including the Ras Lila, which is one of India's classical dance forms
• Many Meitei families observe both, with Sanamahi worship in the household and Vaishnava worship at the temple, and do not experience a contradiction
• The revivalist movement is a real and significant political and cultural force
• Positions on all of this vary within the Meitei community and are not for outsiders to adjudicate

And the current situation. Manipur has experienced very serious ethnic violence, principally between the Meitei of the valley and the Kuki Zo communities of the hills, from 2023 onward, with very large numbers displaced and killed.

That conflict is about land, reservation status, forest rights, migration and political representation, and it has a religious dimension in that the Meitei are substantially Hindu and the Kuki Zo substantially Christian, though reducing it to religion is inaccurate.

What this means for a visitor. Check the current situation before travelling. Access to parts of Manipur has been restricted, and the situation has changed repeatedly.

A guide written at any point cannot describe the position accurately for a reader at another point, and anybody planning to go should check current advisories and local conditions rather than relying on this or any other written account.

The tradition at this temple is Gaudiya Vaishnavism, and the route it took is worth setting out.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:

• Born at Nabadwip in Bengal in 1486
• The founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Bengali Krishna devotional tradition
• Taught bhakti through the sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the divine names, in public and open to everybody
• Regarded by his tradition as Krishna and Radha in a single form
• Spent his later years at Puri
• His movement spread across Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Manipur and, through the twentieth century and ISKCON, worldwide

What made it spread:

• Sankirtana required no priest, no temple, no initiation and no literacy. Anybody could chant
• It was performed publicly, in the street, in procession
• It explicitly disregarded caste in access to devotion
• It was emotional and immediate rather than ritual and formal
• It had music and dance built into it

The Manipur connection. Gaudiya Vaishnavism reached Manipur through Bengal and Assam, along the trade and pilgrimage routes.

There is also a tradition within Manipuri Vaishnavism connecting Manipur to the Mahabharata, in which Arjuna married Chitrangada, a princess of Manipur, and their son Babhruvahana ruled there.

That identification of the Manipur of the epic with the Manipur of the northeast is contested by scholars, since the epic's Manipura is generally placed elsewhere, but it was significant in how Manipuri Vaishnavism understood its own place in the tradition.

Chitrangada. Since the story comes up, it should be told, because it is a good one.

• Arjuna, during his exile, came to Manipura
• Its king had a daughter, Chitrangada, whom he had raised as a son and heir since he had no other child
• Arjuna wished to marry her
• The king agreed on the condition that their son would remain in Manipura as its heir, and would not go to the Pandavas
• They married and had a son, Babhruvahana
• Arjuna left
• Years later, during the Ashvamedha, Arjuna came to Manipura with the horse and fought Babhruvahana without knowing him, and was killed by his own son, and was subsequently revived

Tagore's Chitrangada. He wrote a dance drama on it, and his version is a substantial reworking.

In Tagore's telling, Chitrangada, raised as a warrior and not conventionally beautiful, is granted a year of beauty by the gods so that Arjuna will love her. He does. She then finds that being loved for a borrowed appearance is intolerable, gives up the boon, and reveals herself as she is, and asks to be accepted as a warrior and an equal.

That is a very direct piece of writing about what women are valued for, produced in Bengal in 1892, and it is performed regularly.

The Manipuri dance connection. Tagore was substantially responsible for bringing Manipuri dance to wider Indian attention.

• He saw a Manipuri performance at Sylhet in 1919
• He invited Manipuri gurus to teach at Santiniketan
• Manipuri dance became part of the curriculum there
• His dance dramas, including Chitrangada, incorporated Manipuri elements
• That connection substantially shaped how Manipuri dance was received in the rest of India

So the loop closes: a form created at a temple in Imphal in the eighteenth century, taught at a school in Bengal in the twentieth, in dance dramas about a princess of Manipur written by a Bengali poet.

The state around this temple deserves a section, because very little is known about it outside the northeast.

The geography:

• A valley in the centre, the Imphal valley, at around 800 metres, which is where most of the population lives
• Hills on all sides, considerably higher, where the hill communities live
• The Loktak lake in the valley, the largest freshwater lake in the northeast
• Bordering Myanmar to the east

The valley and hills division is the central fact of Manipur's politics.

• The valley is around ten percent of the state's area and holds the majority of its population, principally Meitei
• The hills are around ninety percent of the area and hold the Naga and Kuki Zo communities
• Land law, reservation status, forest rights and political representation are all structured around this division and are all contested

Loktak:

• The largest freshwater lake in northeastern India
• Famous for its phumdis, floating masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter, described in the Prashar entry
• The phumdis are large enough that people live and fish on them, in floating huts
• Keibul Lamjao, on the phumdis, is the only floating national park in the world
• It is the last natural habitat of the sangai, the Manipur brow antlered deer, which was believed extinct and was rediscovered in 1951, and which walks on the floating vegetation

The sangai deserves a paragraph. It is the state animal of Manipur and one of the most endangered deer in the world.

• Believed extinct by the mid twentieth century
• Rediscovered in 1951 at Keibul Lamjao
• Now numbering a few hundred, in a single population, in a single park
• Adapted to walk on the phumdis, with a distinctive gait
• Threatened by phumdi thinning, caused by the Ithai barrage which holds water levels constant and prevents the phumdis from grounding in the dry season and taking up nutrients

That is a very specific conservation problem: a species whose habitat is a floating mat that needs to sink annually to survive, and a barrage that stopped it sinking.

Manipuri culture:

• Manipuri dance and sankirtana, described above
• Thang ta, the Manipuri martial art, involving the sword and spear, which is performed and practised
• Manipuri handloom, including the phanek and the moirang phee
• Polo. The modern game descends from sagol kangjei, the Manipuri game, which British officers in Manipur and Cachar took up in the nineteenth century and from which the international sport developed. Manipur is where polo comes from and the Imphal polo ground claims to be the oldest in the world
• Football, which Manipur is disproportionately good at, supplying a very large number of players to Indian football

Polo deserves the emphasis. The world's most aristocratic sport was a Manipuri village game, played on Manipuri ponies, which British planters and officers encountered at Silchar in the 1850s and 1860s, from which the Calcutta Polo Club and thereafter the international game followed.

The Manipuri pony is a distinct breed and is now endangered, which is a poor outcome for the animal the whole sport is built on.

The Kangla:

• The old palace and fort complex in Imphal, adjoining the temple
• The seat of the Meitei kings
• Occupied by the British after the Anglo Manipur War of 1891 and used as a military installation
• Held by the Assam Rifles until 2004, when it was handed back to the state
• Now open, with restoration under way

The 1891 war. Worth knowing. A succession dispute led to British intervention, a British force was defeated, five British officers were killed, and a punitive expedition followed which took Imphal.

Bir Tikendrajit and Thangal General were tried and publicly hanged at Imphal, and are remembered as martyrs. 13 August is observed in Manipur as Patriots' Day.

That is a piece of Indian resistance history that is barely known outside the state, and the Kangla is where it happened.

Before anything else. Check the current situation in Manipur before planning any travel there. The state has experienced serious ethnic violence since 2023, access to parts of it has been restricted at various times, and conditions have changed repeatedly.

Check government advisories, check with people who have been recently, and do not rely on any written guide, including this one, for the security situation.

Getting there

• Shri Govindajee temple, Imphal, Manipur, adjoining the Kangla in the city
• Imphal airport has connections to Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi and other cities
• Rail connectivity has been extended toward Manipur but Imphal is principally reached by air or road
• Road access from Dimapur in Nagaland and from Silchar in Assam
• Permits: Indian citizens do not require an Inner Line Permit for Manipur following its reintroduction and subsequent changes, but requirements have shifted, so check. Foreign nationals require a Protected Area Permit

Timings

• The temple opens early and runs through the day. Check locally

When to go

• Kartik Purnima, generally November, for the Maha Ras, which is the principal performance of the year
• Basanta Ras, at the Chaitra full moon
• Janmashtami
• October to March for weather
• Yaoshang, the Manipuri Holi in Phalguna, which runs for five days and includes the thabal chongba, a night dance

Seeing the Ras Lila. If your visit coincides, this is what to prioritise.

• Performances are held at the temple, in the mandapa, principally at the appointed festivals
• They run through the night
• They are worship, not a show. Sit where you are directed, do not talk, do not photograph without permission and do not leave in the middle
• The Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy in Imphal also stages performances and is where the form is taught formally

At the temple

• Traditional dress is appropriate
• Footwear is left outside
• There may be restrictions on entry for non Hindus at some Manipuri Vaishnava temples. Check
• Photography may be restricted

Combining the visit

• Kangla, the old palace and fort, adjoining
• Ima Keithel, the mothers' market, in Imphal, which is run entirely by women and is among the largest such markets in the world, with thousands of women traders. It is one of the most remarkable institutions in India and should be visited
• Loktak lake and Keibul Lamjao, for the phumdis and the sangai
• Manipur State Museum
• INA Memorial at Moirang, where the Indian National Army first raised the flag on Indian soil in 1944
• Imphal War Cemetery and the Battle of Imphal sites
• Andro village, for Sanamahi and pottery

Ima Keithel deserves emphasis. A market in central Imphal, running for centuries, in which every trader is a woman.

• Thousands of women traders across several buildings
• Selling vegetables, fish, textiles, household goods and everything else
• Organised, with its own associations and its own rules
• Historically a centre of political organisation, and Manipuri women's movements including the Nupi Lan, the women's wars of 1904 and 1939 against colonial policy, came out of it

It is one of the most important institutions in the northeast and it is a market you can walk into.

The Battle of Imphal. Worth knowing.

In 1944, Japanese forces and the Indian National Army advanced into Manipur and Nagaland. The battles of Imphal and Kohima were fought over months and were among the most significant of the Burma campaign.

The Imphal War Cemetery and the sites around the valley commemorate it, and the INA Memorial at Moirang marks where the INA flag was raised.

That is the Second World War fought in a valley in Manipur, and the graves are there.

A closing thought. A king in exile was told to tame an elephant to prove who he was. He dreamed of Krishna the night before. He tamed the elephant, got his kingdom back, carved an image from the tree he had been shown, and then invented a dance.

His daughter performed it first. It is now taught at conservatories, performed on stages worldwide, and listed among India's eight classical forms.

And it still happens, all night, in the courtyard of that temple, at the Kartik full moon.