Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/439

Rh all the gods whither he was going, but, having the egg in his mouth, he could not speak clearly (whence the name Purei-romba, bringing -stammering). The place where Taoroinai descended is pointed out close to the entrance to the present Palace grounds. Bhanumati received this divine egg brought by Taoroinai and took great care of it, and from it issued Pakhangba, the divine ancestor of the present ruling family of Manipur, which is thus clearly descended from the ancient Lunar dynasty of Hindustan. The Manipuris therefore have an ancient Hindu pedigree, but the modern introduction of the Hindu religion, a revival as the Manipuris call it, occurred according to their chronicles in the year 1626 of the Shak era (equivalent to 1704–5 A.D.), when we read "A Brahman Goshami named Muni arrived from Assam with 22 men, and the Raja Chorairongba and all male and female members of the Royal family, with all the ministers and the Sirdars, fasted on the 5th Boisak, Wednesday, and performed the religious ceremony of taking advice of the spiritual guide, the holy man Muni Goshami." In 1708–9 we read of temples being built for Krishna and Kali, but in the following year we read of a masonry temple being built for Panthoibi, one of the best known of the Goddesses of the indigenous faith, and immediately after this the collapse of Kali's temple is recorded, and it was not rebuilt for five years. In 1717–8, Chorairongba's successor, who became known as Gharib Nawaz, is said to have performed the ceremony of taking advice from his guru, and in the next line we read that "he also performed some religious ceremonies at the house of the God Senamahi, with all his wives and servants," Senamahi being one of the Umanglais and to this day the household god of the Manipuris. In 1723–4 the same ruler ordered the destruction of the houses of the nine Umanglais, but six weeks later we find him detailing Brahmans to attend on four of these local gods. In the following year Gharib Nawaz dug up the bones of his ancestors and conveyed