A History of Assam c18.2

c18.2

The State of Manipur, consisting, as it does, of a small but most fertile valley, isolated from the neighbouring kingdoms by an encircling zone of mountainous country inhabited by wild and warlike tribes, has long had an independent existence. It was known to the Shāns as Ka-sé and to the Burmese as Ka-thé, a corruption of the same word; the Ahoms called it Mekheli, and the Kachāris Magli, while the old Assamese name for it is Moglau. The Manipuris proper were regarded by Pemberton as "the descendants of a Tartar colony which emigrated from the north-west borders of China during the sanguinary conflicts for supremacy which took place between the different members of the Chinese and Tartar dynasties in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." Their features clearly show that they belong to the Mongolian stock, and their language is closely allied to those of the Kuki tribes which border them on the south. They have records which purport to carry back their history to the thirtieth year of the Christian era. Between that date and 1714, however, only forty-seven kings are enumerated. This would give to each king a reign of nearly 36 years. Moreover, in the whole period, only one important event is mentioned, *viz.*, the conquest of Khumbat in 1475 A.D., by the united forces of Pong and Manipur, which was followed by the annexation of the Kubo valley to the latter country. It is clear that the account of this period is merely legendary. It must have been compiled at a comparatively recent time by the State chroniclers on no better basis than their own imagination and the fugitive memory of an illiterate people.