Photo Courtesy: Indianetzone.com
Manipur’s, ‘Amaiba and Amaibis’ can be regarded as the pioneers of certain traditional medical discoverers. Whole over the World, there are always some types of ancient medical practitioners, they may be called as “Witches or Tantrik” or any other forms of names, but their knowledge sometime helped in the development of the modern medicine. It would be wrong that our ‘Amaibas and Amaibis used only the Chaban Thaba and Mantra Jantra’ rituals, they also used some very effective medicinal/herbal plants e.g. lamangkha, nongmangkha, langthrei, peruk etc. The anomaly is that if a western Scientist took up the research on “Chaban Thaba”, we will appreciate it and feel more important. However, as of now no such research has been conducted, therefore, our traditional practices are seemed to be obsolete.
With our modern knowledge on various Sciences and Technologies and fast information/communications facilities, we are more informed than our forefathers. We knew that the ways of making medicines/foods by our ancestor are very primitive, but the duty of our modern generation is to make it more scientific and effective. This is what many of the western multinational pharmaceutical and nutraceutical companies are doing. It is easier for us (21st Century Homo-Sapiens) to identify between the positive and negative sides of our traditional practices. However, a petty looking traditional ritual/practice may sometime become a breakthrough scientific product. We can term it as “scientific understanding of our traditional knowledge’s”. Some of the examples of Manipuri’s food items, which are regarded as ultra nutritious and proven by moderns scientific researchers are the Black Rice (Chahao), Yongchak, Ngari, Soibum/Soijin, Hawaichar etc.
On the other hand, the famous dance of Manipuri Ras Lila was the amalgamations of Maibi Jagoi and story of Krishna. During “Laiharaoba”, the rhythmic dances of Maibis and the sequential depictions of human developments from “Embryo”, is something unique to undertake researches upon. The hymns of the Maibis and Pena Yakairol definitely must have certain acoustics impacts on the human physiological, psychological and nervous systems. But our ignorance is making it looked like an ordinary murmuring by some eunuch! If it were in Japan, the whole world by now will be enjoying the Pena Yakairol and Maibi Laimang Famba as something extraordinary acoustic therapy.
The values of our traditional rituals and practices come from thousands of years of experiences. Some of the practices are locally proven but many of them are yet to be researched or exploited for beneficial purposes. The modernizations of our traditions and cultures are at the hands of the new generations. Again taking the example of Japan, it can be mentioned here that their traditional practices are not 100% foolproof, there are many Japanese Cults still practicing hazardous rituals. But the endpoint is that Japanese are famous for preserving or conserving their traditions and cultures. How about we Manipuri?
