Chapter One 1* Baocgi«)Und Information 1.1 the Problem
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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.