CHAPTER ONE

1* BAOCGI«)UND INFORMATION

1.1 THE PROBLEM OF STUDY

A field survey was undertaken to study bioanthropological variation in the three major local populations,namely^the Andro# the Meitei and the Khangabok o£ Manipur valley* Analyses o£ data obtained from this investigation and the results are sununarised in this treatise.

Information about physical features and other biological traits may be sought for a variety of reasons* The most important of these is to understand the evolution of ad^tive modes and structural diversities in biological populations of man* If body size and shape* and genetical constitution are related to bio­ logical functions, they must be adapting to environmental changes.

Most living populations have resulted from isolation* migration and hybridisation involving different components which must have influenced at least a part of the human gene pool. Such slow and small changes may produce dines in the traits and gene frequ­ encies* The scope and limitation of these processes are largely related to the ecocultural systems in which human populations evolve. Therefore* a quantitative analysis of microvariation of three sympatric Manipuri populations have been attempted in this thesis in the context of available ecological* demographic historical* cultural and linguistic evidence about the dynamics

their biological relationships. 4 1.2 ECOLCXJy AM) BIOSYSTEM OF MANIPUR VALLEY

mie populations which are Investigated share a common ecological niche of the central valley of Manipur State. Manipur covers an area of 22,356 square kilometres, between 23.83° and 25^68° N latitude and 93.03® and 94.78® E longitude ( Dept, of Stats., Govt, of Manipur 1975) within the Indian Republic near the border of Burma In the east. A chain of mountain ridges surround this Central District - a fertile s^cer->shaped valley of about 1788.8 square kilometres, at an altitude of 785 metres, which is drained by a number of rivers and rivuletes (Fig.l).

Occurrence of many lakes, one of which (Loktak) submerges

an average area of 65 square kilometres in a year and fossil marine fish have suggested that this valley, along with Cachar,

Gaxo Hills and parts of Bengal were under water in the long past

(Oldham 1883# Roy 1958). But evidence of human habitation on the hills have been traced from prehistoric times (Singh,O.K. 1972).

The mountains which isolate the valley, themselves continue into the highlands of Nagaland in north, Assam and Mizoram in west

and south and those of the Burmese territory in the south and east. This has facilitated waves of immigration of various ethnic populations in the surrounding plateau as indicated by numerous

foot»tracts. Obviously at a later stage, a variety of natural flora

(Hodson 1908, 1911) and different fauna (Godwin-Austen 1874-75) of Manipur valley have attracted (Grimwood 1892« Johnstone 1896) both travellers and iraraigrants to this region for a long time. On the other hand, survival of Isolated faunal species such as

the l|Bw-antler^eer indicates natural barriers against easy inflow

6 of genes into the valley even for human populations, until comrau-

nications developed. At Inphal, which has been the cultural,

political and economic eentre of Manipur valley since long

converges four important routes which must have linked it with Burma, Nagaland, Cachar in Assam and Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) for quite a long time, after the initial isolation.

l^iere is no definitive indication of the ethno«>geogra~ phical origin of the founding ancestors of the present"day Meitei population. On the other hand their ethnocultural links with diverse people of different directions are equally strong. Thisg

in the background of prehistoric and historical evidence of equally limited facilities of communication from all sides, might suggest the possibility of origin of the populations of Manipur by merging of several ethnic waves.

1,3 CHOICE OP THE PO PUL AT 10 MS

The population size of the present-day Manipur State as a whole can be estimated from the 1971 census which has recorded

10,72,753 individuals of which 5,41,675 were males. The hills are

inhabited by tribal populations (Brown 1873; Dun 1886; Johnstone

1896; Hodson 1901, 1908; Roy 1958; Singh, Khelchandra 1969). In

the valley the predominent population is the Meitei. The bulk of the Meitei are spread over the entire valley

and identify themselves as the Kshatriyas of Hindu hierarchal

system (Hodson 1908, Chatterjee 1950, Singh K.B. 1963). A small group of Meitei Brahmans (biroadly included among the Meitei) are

sparsely represented in all Meitei villages and there are a few

families in Inphal, which makes them unsuitable for the present 7 study. In addition, there are a few small endogamous populations who are usually confined to large villages and are collectively referred to as the Loi and the Bishnupriya (Sinha, K.P. undated;

Chaudhuri and Gupta 1975). All these groups speak various dia> lects of the common Meiteilol (Language of the Meitei) and their interspersed villages from a mosaic of cultural variety as shown in the sketch (Fig.2). There are also a few settlements of the more recent Bengali and Nepali speaking immigrants and a negligible size of the tribal populations from the hills* Of course, there are also a few isolated families from different parts of India in the In9>hal city. The focus of the present investigation is on the core of the ancient Manipur! populations in the ethnohistorical sense.

Therefore, the Meitei, the Loi and the Bishnupriya populations have been chosen for this investigation. The Muslims were exclu­ ded from this study because of their apparent physical diversity and history of recent migration in spite of their social inter­ action with the neighbouring Meitei and occasionally marrying

Meitei girls (Brown 1873> Singh Khelchandra 1969). The broader clusters of a few breeding populations, the Loi and the

Bishnupriya, have been r^resenteci by the sizable Arxdro and the

Khangabok respectively for the purpose of present research. For

a meaningful insight into the underlying physical and genetleal variations studied, a brief review of the ethnohistorical data has been presented in the following section* ¥\Ht MAP OF CENTRAL DISTRICT OF MANIPUR tAMPUINC AREA.]

CBNTRAL W«TmCT »OUNO*ftV DlSTW Cr •OUMOAA t •WtCIVlSfONM •OMMMMV

*«vt« LAKt suwFwee mmm rnrtmt ■cfTCi # M NM tCM OK a *T T L *«w r r • M w n o Mrrummrr 1 ,4 ETHNOHISTORY OP THE POPULATIONS

1.4,1 The Andro

Ihe endoganxjus Andro population numbering 4170 (Village census 1971) Is located In two adjacent villages* Andro Khunjao and Andro Khunou at the foothills of Nongmaijing about 25 kilo­ metres to the south-east of Iinphal town. The second village is much smaller and is a recent offshoot of the first. These villages are not obviously near the highways of conununication which suggest a longstanding cultural and biological isolation of the people, except for a few Meitei villages in their neighbourhood.

They recognise clans havino names identical with those of the

Meitei, but do not strictly follow the rules of clan exogamy.

There is no bar against cross-causin marriages among them and they clainn that marriages with other Loi populations - Sekmai or

Phayeng Lois were possible, but not a single case occurred in the present sample. Although, theoretically intermarriage with Meitei are not permissible, in a sairple of one hundred marriages, there was one Instance of marriage between an Andro girl and a Meitei boy. The boy was absorbed in the Andro population. In another instance, a Nepali girl married to an Andro boy was absorbed in the Andro village. The Andro appears to be the largest population of the *Loi* community - a scheduled caste of Manipur (Village census 1971).

The other Loi populations are called, the Phayeng, the Sekmai, the

Khurkhul, the Susakameng, the Yaithlbi (Thoubal Khunou) and the

Chairen by their village names* 10 The *Loi* is a Meitel title which was originally given to the outcastes from the Meitei society by the Meitel Kings for violating the customary laws and disobeying the King’ s orders

(Hodson 1908, Singh W,Y, 196^ • It is alternatively suggested that the title was meant for war captives or for descendants of the former inhabitants of Moirang (Brown 1873). The Andro themselves claim to be one of the oldest people of the Manipur valley who have been independent from the beginning (McCulloch

1859). It is said that the Andro and the Phayeng Lois once occupi€id the Konung (the palace) at Iraphal from which they were driven out by king Pakhangba (Hodson 1908), an early Meitei King.

They formerly had a separate language known as *Chakpa*

(Singh Khelchandra 1969, 1975, Hodson 1908) which is no more prevalent, although many old people can speak and understand it.

This language is supposed to have some connection with the eastern Naga languages, with which the language of the Meitei is classified together (Grierson 1923).

Hie Andro worship house>deities such as *Sana Mahi* and

Sylvan deities (Umang Lais) called Panam Ningthou and Pureiromba

(Chaudhuri and Dasgupta 1975). It was found during the present enquiry that a few households have accepted Hinduism and Chris­ tianity only during the last decade. The neo-Gouriya (the new

Vaisnavas) receive the services from Brahman priests of adjacent

Meitei villages. For the neo-Christians, there is a church at

Machengpat inside the village. However, the majority of them still stick to their old animistic beliefs. Their traditional occu­ pations are distillation of liquor and making pottery besides 11 settled agriculture* The Andro families domesticate pigs and eat pork and also indulge in drinking indigenous liquor.

No study has been reported so far about the biological variability of the Andro population nor any suggestion made regarding their ethnic affinities. No apparent difference of the

Andro people from the Meitei in respect of physical features or dresses and ornaments could be recognised during the field work whereas it may sometimes be possible to distinguish a Khangabok from them*

1*4.2 The Meitei

The Meitei arc distributed throughout the valley. Their settlements were also reported finom other Indian states of Assam,

Tripura# Utter Pradesh, West Bengal and also from Bangladesh and

Burma (HOdson 1908). Excluding the scheduled tribes, scheduled castes (the Loi), the Muslims and other small groups, the esti­ mated total population of the Meitei in Manipur valley is about seven lakhs (Census 1971)* But the largeness in demographic size and in the area of distribution raises a problem in accepting this population as a unit of genetical evolution which is ideally a breeding population. Normally, the degree of geneticel isolation between sections of a population of distant places is expected to be high even in the absence of clear barriers of mating.

However, Isolation by distance is not v;ell marked in the popula­ tion structure of the Meitei of Manipvir valley. Any genetic difference that may arise would be swaTiped by interbreeding between areas. Only a suggestion of heterogeneity in the incidence of the two types of hand-clasping between the two Meitei male

12 satt5)les from two different areas has been made by the present

investigator (Singh, K.S. 1973) and others (Singh, N.R. and

Malhotra 1971b). But a wide sampling fluctuation based on

arbitrary collection of data for Individual segregatlonal traits, especially those for which herltablllty estimates are low and controversial, does not represent the biological variation within a population. Although Individual traits may often show wide variations within a population (ftikherjee 1972), the present study Is concerned with a variety and number of traits, most of which are multifactorial, and their combined effect within the

Meltel population. The area of distribution of the Meltel population In the Manipur valley can easily be assumed to be smell for apparent diversity in such multifactorial and rela^ tively stable traits within them. Furthermore, during this field Investigation the total

Meltel population has been found to largely satisfy the condi­ tions of a breeding population, an ideal unit of genetical

evolution. Theoretically, there is no marriage barrier between different areas of the valley. They have had a well developed system of clan exogamy until recently and a less rigid village exogamy which raise the matrimonial distances. Strict prohibi­ tion against consanguineous marriages also contribute towards

the SM»e trend. If the valley is devided into four regions namely,

north, south, west and east the regional exogamy has appeared to occur upto 50 percent. Constant mobility of young men for

jobs and other purposes to the Irtphal area or from Iri9}hal to

the villages has led to a larger proportion of inter-zonal marriages mostly by elopement atleast for the past three gene­

rations. Ttic genetical homogeneity of this population cannot be 13 seriously questioned until systematic and representative samples of data for various traits are collected together from all the regions and the results suggests regional differentiation.

The present-day Meitei represent a sufficiently closed community as far as Intermarriages are concerned. Only in a microscopic small fraction of all marriages of Meitei of Manipur have girls been taken from the Meitei populations residing outside the state or from non-Meitel populations. Rare instances of elopement of Meitei girls with neibouring Khangabok men and their settling in those village communities have found. These marriages do not in any way contributA^ to inflow of genes to the Meitei population. Even a small degree of regional differenciation will not substantially affect the results of the present investigation, because the data have been acquired as far as pra";tlcable from widely different areas, especially for the male subjects* as will be shown in the next chi^ter. So, the Meitei population of

Manipur valley has been considered as one genetical population and conditions of genetical equilibrium and the random mating may be assumed among the Meitei population for the purpose of this study* There are various speculations about their ethnic origin on the basis of indological, cultural and historical information, legends and opinions, While their language is classified within

Tlbeto-Burman family (Grierson 1923). The Meitei are described ast

(a) Indo-mongoloid and advanced section of Kuk1-Chin

Immigrants from Burma (Chatterjee 1950), (b) descendants of a colony of Tartar Immigrants from 14 north-west China during 13th and 14th century

(Pemberton 1835) which was however disagreed by Hodson (1908),

(c) having people of 'fine cut features approaching Aryan type* among them and *descendants of an Aryan wave of pure blood passing through Manipur to Burma in prehistoric times* (Brown 1873, Dun 1866).

One of the earliest references about immigration into Manipur valley by Poireiton is recorded in the book ‘ Foireiton

Khunthokpa* (Singh, W.Y. 1935, Singh, Khelchandra 1969) which refers to third century A.D, Chatterjee (1950) thinks that the word Poireiton is derived from a Sanskrit root and means *one who has come to a new place*. This may indicate an early link with SanskritIc traditions of the Manipuri people from very ancient times, lie sucget-ts that this was a name given to Lord

Siva* Furthermore, the legend of Poireiton also refers to the practice of cremetlon in Manipur, even before Christ (Singh,

Khelchandra 1969). This suggests some cultural link of a section of the ancestors of the present-day Manipuri people, presumably a the Meitel with Vedic Aryan ideae and customs (Singh, W.Y. 196^«

An Indid ethnic element in them (Eickstedt 1934) from very early times cannot be precluded on the basis of cultural records (Singh, W.Y. 1 9 6 ^ . References of Manipur in Bhavisya

Purana (Chattsrjee 1950) and in Mahabharata also indicate an advanced civilization of the Meitel kingdom at ancient times.

The Meitel are believed to have descended from Arjuna, the epical hero of Mahabharata (Singh, W.Y. 1935, Ahmad 1935, Roy

1950), but it was criticised by Dun (1886) and Hodson (1908). 15 Legends, again, refer to some gene Inflow to the Meltel

population from various Naga and Kukl tribal groups. The kings

are supposed to have admitted some tribal men into the Meitei population (Johnstone 1896). According to a Tangkhul legend, the

Tangkhul, the Kuki and the Meitei are the descendants of three sons of the same parents. Hodson (1908) and Horam (1975) also

records various legejads which connect the hill tribes, the Naga and the Kuki, with the Meitei of the plain.

There is also a speculation about tne word *Meitei* being derived from the Kachin word 'Moi' ano the Siamese 'Tai*

(bodgson 1853). It is not unlikely that at different periods invading tribes have merged themselves with the dominant Meitei community of Manipur (Roy 1950).

The history and royal chronicle (Cheitharol Kumbaba) of

Manipur refers to bands of Burmese settlements at different parts of Manipur such as Khurai Kabo (Burmese in Meiteilol)

Leikai, Kabo Leikai (Singh, M. Jhulon 1947) and Uningkhong

Mapan Kangdabi (Eingh, L. Ibungohal and Singh, Khelchandra 1967), to mention only a few recent incidents in 1389, 1598 and 1864

and they were once known as the Nongpok Haram (Eastern immi­

grants) among the Meiteis (Singh, M. Jhulon 1947).

The annals of Manipur point to their assimilation of

Bengali culture through Vaisnavism, the script and vocabulary

and also Sanskritisation by Manipuri Brahmans whose ancestors

mainly came from Hengal a few centuries ago (Singh, K.S. and

Mukherjee 1975). Ihis might have s t a r t e d in 15th century (Singh,

K.B. 1963). The titles such as *Fal* and *Roy* suggest an

absorption of some Bengalee elements in the ethnic composition

of the Meitei. 16 All these information give a strong suggestion that the present-day Meitei population have earlier diverse elements often from the neighbouring communities having closer ethnic affinities and sparsely from Caucasoid or Indid strains from the very ancient times* Documentation of a long cultural conti­ nuity with closely similar groups such as the Andro, who have ejqserienced smaller rates of gene flow as coirpared to the Meitei, may indicate a process of biological transformation of the Meitei population through history* The retention of a non-Aryan language, Meiteilol (Manipuri), which is the chief medium of communication a'rong the people of i^anipur, stroncly suggests that the basic ancestral population has had some genetic relationship with the neighbouring populations whose language have coiimwn origin*

However, the modem Meitei language neces&arily contains a considerable proportion of San£;kritic words particularly in the context of religion and has adopted an Indo-Aryan (Bangali) script. A Hindu way of life and religion must have also influ­ enced their breeding (genetical) structure in addition to the associated gene flow* 'Phe Vaisnav philosophy of non-violence has largely contributed to their restriction against non-vegeterian diet except fish similar to the Bengalee Vaisnavas which may be related to their ecosystem. Unlike the Andzo and other less

Sanskritised neighbours, the Meitei are characterised by the habit of taking milk and milk products since a long time v/hich obviously would affect the biological aspects of vital statis­ tics. The Meitei identify themselves a.*? the hlQh caste Hindus and have genercilly followed usual restrictions and taboos asso­ ciated with the concept of purity* 17 The people have been settled agriculturists for a long time and have had a tradition of being rulers and soldiers of the ancient Manipuri Kingdom, with the development of urbani­ zation and oomiTMnication, they are culturally linked up with the main stream of Indian civilization, classical art and culture,

1 .4.3 Tne Khanqabok

Itie Khangabok population is confined to one large village of 7782 individuals (Village census 1971} which is 26 kilometres to the south-east of Imphal in the vicinity of Meitei villages on all sides, and about 20 kilometres from the two Andro settlements which are remotely connected with the Khangabok village (Fig.2). Itiie people of Khangabok as well as two other villages of Heirok and Ningthoukhong are described as the Bish- nupriya (Sinha, K

^wever, from the genetical point of view each one of them forms a separate gene pool because of isolation by distance*

Theoretically, the Khangabok can intermarry with the Heirok and the Ningthoukhong populations of the Bishnupriya cluster. But in practice, such marriage could be located only in one case out of 100 marriages studied during the field investigation. This marriage was contracted between a Khangabok boy and a Ningthou­ khong girl. There are however three cases of intermarriage with the Meitei women which were not expected from customary rules and are likely to be a recent phenomenon. Thus a high rate of endogamy, at least among the earlier generations makes the

Khangabok population an acceptable unit of anthropological study« 18 Itiere is hardly any separate historical Information about the

Khangabok. Whatever has been said about the Blshnuprlya, within which this population can be undoubtedly grouped may be expected to throw some light on ethnohlstory of the Khangabok. The pattern Intensity index on finger, which is the only bloanthzx>- pological trait studied among the Bishnupriya show a striking similarity with that of the Khangabok, cortparing the male sanple^

(Section 4.15, Table 97), This, in view of the ethnic stability of dermatoglyphic character, strongly suggest that Khangaboks have no marked ethnic oiversity from the Bishnupriya population of the neighbouring Cachar district. Ppeit± from the linguistic and the ethnohistorical information about the existence of some

Bengalee element arnoiicj the Bishnupriya population in general, there is hardly any definite suggestion about the ethnic classi­ fication or origin of this population. The majority of Bishnupriya Manipurls are found to reside

in the Cachar district of Assafu, Tripura State sad in Sylhet district of Bangladesh (Sinha, K.P. undated). Taere is a strong suggestion of their earlier iiWTtiyration from the west inr.o

Manipur (Hodson 1S03, Singh, Khelchandra 1969). These L'tfnigrants probably belonged to the Bengalee low caste populations, such as

Dom who later married Meitsi girls and cfJled thSiTSiilvas as

Kalasaya or Bishnupriya (Hodson 1506). It is believed that tnese inruTiiyrants were first settled

in or around Bishnupur (Laniangdong) village, the last station of the hill pass, Ibngjeimarin, through which they probobli came

and afterwards they iiiust have fshiftt^i in groups to other places

such as Khangabok, Heirok etc. Historiciil itiformation also 19 suggests that the people who once settled In the Blshnupur area

(Pig.2) of Manipur are known by the name of Blshnuprlya (Brown 1873, ^un 18^6, Grierson 1923, Sinha, K.P. undated). Their occupation at that time was supply of grass for the royal stable (Grierson 1923). Alternatively, there is a claim that the Bishnupriya who are now settled outside Manipur are descendants of the original people of the Manipur valley (Sinha^ K.P .undated) which, of course, needs a careful review. The dialect of the Khangabok is nearer to the original

Meiteilol than that spoken by the Andro. But the Bishnupriya living outside the state speak a language akin to Bengali and

Assamese of tlie Indo-Aryam family in addition to Manipuri (Sinha,

K.P, undated). Like ocher sections of Bishnupiiya, the Knangabok are also followers of che Chaitanya school of Vaianavism, and their ways of life, customs and costumes are closely similar to that of the Meitci. Identical food habits, participation in coioi.ion religious beliefs and festii^als leadino to .^ocio-economio interactions brings the Khangabok and tne neighbouriug Moitfci populations nearer. The Khangabok population is about tqualiy auvancea in cultural and economic persuits as the Meitei* Hef>iaes, tlie main­ stay of agriculture*, the Khdngaj:xjk concentr«te on basketry, diary

and rope-making industry. It may however be safely suf^uested that the Blsnnupxii»a populations whom the Khangabok rej>resent, have been founded by a distinctly separate ethnic gioup whotever that may be, and ;-hat

the Bishnupriya have later had some obvious gene flow from the

Meltei. This ana other cultural fuicJ acoiogical ioctors of close

20 similarity and nearness may be suggested to bring out a biocultural convergence of the Khangabok population towards the Meitei.

1.5 BIDCULTORAL INTERACTION BETWEEN THE POPULATIONS

The foregoing summary of the ethnohistorical information and opinions Ittads to the following hypothesis about the ephe* n^ral nature of the biocultural relationship of the three populations which may be relevant for the present study* Each of these populations are practically endogamous and therefore have different gene pools as a result of their microevolution. The founding ancestors of both the Andrr> and the Meitei populations must have had some closer genetical and cultural, relationship than they ^pear to have today. The linguistic affinities of both these populations with the neighbouring

Maring tribe further strengthens this possibility. Both of them have inhabited in almost the same isolated biotope for thousands of years and have continued and adapted their cultures in res­ ponse to it* On the other hand, the geographical location of their settlement, primitive beliefs and practices, backward economy and occupation, drinking and food habits indicate that the

Andro have retained their traditional culture which the Meitei have completely transformed through assimilation of Brahmanic religion and in due course of the modem way of life, whereas the Andro population has remained relatively unmixed. There are direct and indirect evidences that the >teitei es

Irrespective of the controversy, that the Khangabok population who represent the Bishnupriya oorainunity are autoch» thones or an emigrant population of the Manipur valley# there is hardly any similar claim on historical or linguistic grounds for their ancestors to have had originated from an ethnic stock related to the Meitei* They might have come in contact with the

Meitei population during historical times when the latter assumed the status of rulers of Manipur and during adoption of the

Vaisnavism in the Manipur valley* Although some Bengalee ethnic elements are obviously contained in the coirpositlon and culture of both the Meitei and Bishnupriya Manipuri* the concentration of this con5)onent is much larger in the Bishnupriya community and its subpopulations# such as the Khangabok than in the Meitei*

Linguistic# demographic and ethnohistorical information and opinions suggest# a Bengalee origin of the founding fathers of the Bishnupriya# whereas the Meitei originally may have branched from population of the Kuki-Chin language group who later acuaix- tured at various times with some Indid elements mainly from

Bengal * The Bishnupriya has been reportea to have married Meitei girls and a few contenporary instances of which from the present ge„.ratlo„ of the Khangabok h » e been already mentioned. THU could contribute to a trend of genetlcal convergence between the Khangabok and the Meltel who are also otherwise likely to be developing slmUar climatic and eco-oultural ad^tatlon for a considerable number of generations. There is no historical evidence to suggest a biocultural link between the Khangabok and the Andro from ancient times till today and there is hardly any opportunity of interraction between them.

The basic difficulty in bioanthropological comparison of hurricin populations is the lack of tiracs-depth in such observations and measurements. The most obvious approach to bioanthropolo­ gical study of microevolution is co obtain some historical information on interaction of pairs of populations without which interpretation of biological, cultural and linguistic similarities and differences between contemporary populations becomes iOTbiC;iious. In the present case, however, we can at least varify the working hypothesis b&sed on cviltuial and hii;torical information bv using parameters of physical anthropology rinc the approach of populcition genetics.

1.6 BIQANTHROPOLOGia^^L STUDIEis IN

The major object of this work is to examine the corres­ pondence of bioanthropological Information with the ethnohisto- rical information in respect of the changing patterns of relationship among these three populations.

Survey of literature on bioanthropological studies on the

Manipurl populations yield very little useful infonuation for varlfying the hypothesis about their earlier relationship* In fact# there are only a few studies and they are limited either In^^ number of traits or in populations considered and sometimes even In the size of the samples. n>e reasons for inadequate data from Manipur lie In the traditional taxonomic and typological ^proach of the physical anthropologists and consequent search for new varieties in Isolated tribes* They are outlined as follows.

1*6*1 Anthropometry

'Xhe earliest anthropometric records on hsad^ face and height measurements on only fifteen Meitei males (mean stature 1640 mm) from both Manipur and outside the state, placed them in a separate category between Kabui Nagas (mean stature 1674 mm) on the one hand and the 'Itiadou (mean stature 1609 mm) and other

Kuki tribes (waddel 1900# Sh«w 1928) represented by even smaller sanqples, on the other hand. But Haddon (1929) postulated a prehistoric (Pre«-draviaian) element airiong the Manipuris, Khasis and Mikirs of neighbouring Assam excluding the Nagas, while Shaw

(1928) found a Negroid affinity of the Thadou.

Soon followed the suggestion of 44 percent Dravidian and lesser proportions of iSlesiot# Pre-dravidian and Mongoloid ele­ ments in fifty males of the Kom tribe of southern Manipur

(Dasgupta and BAsU 1936) • One hundred Kuki males (Das 1945) and sixty Kabul males (Chakladar and Chaudhuri 1957) were again measured for a few more additional traits which showed diffe­ rences from that of other Naga tribes. Thus anthropometric study on Manipuri speaking populations was limited to the Meitei and the suggestions went little beyond the historical speculationsy about their ethnic elemer 24 1*6*2 Blood Groups

The first blood group survey In the Manipur region was undertaken during almost the same period of anthropometric studies (Brit. Med. Asson. 1939) and its report shows a higher incidence of the gene *B* among the Kabul in contrast to other Nagas. However# a recent survey (Battacharjee and Nanda 1976) shows that *A* gene frequency Is wery high among the Palte and *0* gene among the Hmar and the Kuki of southern Manipur*

1*6.3 PennatOQlvphs

Systematic bioanthropological investigation of the Mani­ pur populations began only recently with the report of a dermatoglyphic survey of both sexes of fourteen major endogamous populations of the Manipur state (Chakravarti and Mukherjee 1963)*

While all the male sanples of the Naga populations of the northern hills displayed nearly 55 percent whorl patterns and those of the Kuki populations of the southern hills roughly 45 percent of those patterns on fingers# the Meitei males had about 50 percent of whorls which corroborated with geographical trend of ethnic variation as suggested by Waddel (1900)* It is relevant for the present purpose that the Meitei population showed some genetical diversity from the surrounding hill people. Furthermore, the same authors (Chakravarti and Mukherjee

1961) also reported that the Blshnupriya Manipuris of Assam diverged more towards the Bengalee populations in their lower whorl frequency (44 percent) on fingers in the male satnple than that of the Meitei males* However# the frequencies of finger- print patterns in the female san^Dles of the two populations# 25 the Meitel and the Bishnupriya, are relatively more similar to each other*

It remains to be verified If the Khangabok population of Manipur valley^ also show a similar trend in fingerprint patterns and other traits to substantiate their claim to be a branch of the Blshnupriya and in fact they do. In any case# the earlier dermatoglyphic data for the Blshnupriya and the

Meitel populations do not stand against the ethnohistorical hypothesis about their biological relationships.

1.6.4 Somatoscopic Traits

The third phase of physical anthropological study among

Manipurls, a decade later« provided data on frequencies of a few segregatlonal somatoscopic and behavioural (conative) traits which are likely to have sin5>le genetlcal background. Singh, N«R. and Malhotra observed significantly higher incidence of non-attached earlobe (1970), cleft chin (1971a) and hand-clas­ ping with right finger over left (1971b) among the Manipuri

Brahman than among the Meitel, and on that basis classified the former within 'the Caucasoid race* and the latter within *the

Mongoloids*. But the present Investigator (Singh, K.S. 1973) observed a significant difference between a different Meitel sample from Thoubal area and the classical Mongoloid populations from China and Japan.

Although these results are suggestive of some degree of genetlcal differentiation between the sympatric populations such as the Manipuri Brahman and the Meitel, a difinitlve conclusion about the diversity of their ethnic origin on the basis of 26 statistical difference or distance of a few presumably single gene traits is difficult to make. Even if such a conclusion could be assumed to be true, close homogeneity of the same two saiT53les in the frequencies of types of arm folding (Singh^ N.R, and Malhotra 1971b) and cartilaginous lun^j (Malhotra and Singh, N.R, 1971) would suggest a process of convergent evolution# The reverse process of divergence from a genetical similarity is also equally tenable.

It may be of interest to note that the male sanples of the Meitei population from Thoubal (Singh« K.S. 1973) and from

Iiiphal (Singh« N.R. and Malhotra 1971b) differ significantly

(P 0.05) between them in the frequency of types of hand clasping# but the female san^iles of the Manipuri Brahman and of the Meitei do not differ significantly in this respect, at 5 percent p^robability. The male san^le of the Meitei of Thoubal area and the Manipuri Brahman do not significantly differ.

Frequencies of individual segragational characters may be sen­ sitive to underlying processes of microevolutionary change rather than reflecting ethnic affinities of populations, provided that there is no marked degree of sampling error. In this case« however no particular care was taken by the author to make the samples representative in nature and it is quite likely that the data from the two Meitei settlements represent clusters of families. The results obtained from them may not reflect the nature or extent of population variability in this area. However, as has been statt.d in the previous section* the

Meitei of Manipur has been assumed to be practically one breeding unit and it is also e9g;>ected that the Meitei population will not show a large amount of distinction in different regions if a Z 1 number of characters are taken into account* It may be worthwhile to verify this assumption of relatively rapid change in the frequency of single gene traits in comparison to multifactorial traits by a systematic conparison of well defined endogamous populations selected for the present study.

The combined data from two Bishnupriya populations# the Khangabok and the Heirok, again show a significant drop in the incidence of Ri^ht type of hand-clasping from that of the Thoubal

Meitei studied by the present investigator (Singh, K,S, 1973)*

But the male sample of these Bishnupriya populations show striking similarity with the male Nteitei sample from Insphal area, in this trait. The pooled Bishnupriya sample from Manipur also displayed a significantly lower incidence (P<0.05) of individuals with middle phalangeal hair on fingers (Singh, K, S* 1972a) than in the Meitei san^le from Thoubal (Singh, K,S. and Mukherjee 1975), while both these populations showed a homogeneity in the fre­ quency of occipital hair whorls (Singh, K,S, 1972b).

More recently Singh, K«S« and Mukherjee (1975) have discussed how the Meitei population appears to be the most hairy on the middle segments of their fingers among the so called

Mongolian populations, if at all they can be included in that ethnic division* It could not thus be decided without further investigation, to what extent the presence of non-Mongolold ethnic elements among the Meitei as suggested by cultural and historical information has been behind this diversity or hov; far the process of natural selection or random genetic drift are behind it* It is hardly {>osslble to categorise the population into one or other ethnic group on the basis of single biological

traits• 28 Ihu8« the results of previous work on genet leal variation suggest microevolutionary processes and emphasise the need of freshly collected systematic bioanthropological data on the Manipuri speaking populations of the valley and their analysis in the light of the various ethnohistorical information and suggestions« Hence# the present attempt to collect and analyse fresh data on these three populations. Distillation of oountzy liquor. Andro tfomens* another occupation.