My early days in Manipur--The capital--The inhabitants--Good
qualities of Manipuris--Origin of valley of Manipur--Expedition
to the Naga Hills--Lovely scenery--Attack on Kongal Tannah by
Burmese--Return from Naga Hills--Visit Kongal Tannah.
The first few weeks in Manipur were taken up in making acquaintance
with the place and people, and doing all that was possible to disarm
the fears of the Durbar. Never was there one so suspicious. At
first all my movements were watched, and wherever I went spies,
open or secret, followed; however, I encouraged it to the utmost,
and told the officials to inquire into everything I did, and they
very soon saw that there was no necessity for special espionage,
though all my acts were still noted and reported. Several little
difficulties cropped up regarding British subjects, and required some
care in dealing with them. In one case, a man had taken upon himself
to intrigue with some of the Nagas under Manipur, and urged them to
declare themselves British subjects, and in another, a man had robbed
the Maharajah. In both instances the Durbar had acted foolishly and
precipitately, though under much provocation. However, I turned both
men out of the country, with orders never to return.
The question of British subjects and their rights was one that gave
me much trouble for years. Judging by a decision of the High Court
of Calcutta that all the descendants of European British subjects
were European British subjects, I insisted on all descendants
of British subjects being considered as such, and subject to my
jurisdiction. After a long struggle I carried my point, and it very
greatly strengthened my position.
A few more words about the capital and the Manipuris may not be
amiss. Imphal, as has been said, [20] covered a space of fifteen
square miles. On the north side it touches on some low hills, called
Ching-mai-roong, and running westward is bounded by a shallow lake,
which is partly enclosed by a continuation of the hills, here called
Langol, on which grows a celebrated cane used for polo sticks. Then,
running south, it is intersected by several roads, notably the road
to Silchar, which enters the capital at a place called Kooak-Kaithel
(i.e. crow bazaar). Here it is bounded by rice cultivation. Going
farther south, and sweeping round in an easterly direction, it is
bounded by the Plain of Lang-thabal, at one extremity of which lies
the old capital; here two rivers intersect it. And going farther east,
it is bounded by the lower slopes of a hill rising 2500 feet above the
valley. Then turning to the northward and crossing two rivers, we come
again to the place from which we started. The want of the town was a
good water-supply; there were one or two fair-sized tanks, or ponds,
as they would be called in England, and the afore-mentioned rivers,
of which the water is not improved by receiving the ashes of the
dead burned on their banks. Beyond this, all the water obtainable was
derived from small ponds, one or more of which was to be found in every
garden enclosure. The ground on which the capital stands must at one
time have been very low, probably a marsh, and it has been artificially
raised from time to time by digging these tanks; every raised road,
too, meant a deep stagnant ditch on either side. The people are not
sanitary in their habits, and when heavy rain falls the gardens are
flooded, and a fair share of the accumulated filth is washed into
the drinking-tanks, the result being frequent epidemics of cholera.
The Manipuris themselves are a fine stalwart race descended from an
Indo-Chinese stock, with some admixture of Aryan blood, derived from
the successive waves of Aryan invaders that have passed through the
valley in prehistoric days. It may be this, or from an admixture of
Chinese blood, but certainly the Manipuris have stable and industrious
qualities which the Burmese and Shans do not possess. Since then the
race has been constantly fed by additions from the various hill-tribes
surrounding the valley. The result is a fairly homogeneous people of
great activity and energy, with much of the Japanese aptitude for
acquiring new arts. The men seem capable of learning anything, and
the women are famous as weavers, and in many cases have completely
killed out the manufacture of cloths formerly peculiar to certain
of the hill-tribes, over whom the Manipuris have obtained mastery
by superior intellect. They are always cheerful, even on a long and
trying march, and are good-humoured under any difficulties and never
apparently conscious of fatigue. They are very abstemious, and live
chiefly on rice and fish, which is often rotten from preference. Though
rigid Hindoos outwardly, they have a curious custom by which a man
of low caste, marrying a high-caste woman, can be adopted into her
tribe, the exact reverse of what prevails in India, where a woman of
high caste marrying a low-caste man is hopelessly degraded and her
children outcasts.
It is impossible for those who have marched much in the hills with
Manipuris to avoid liking them. Their caste prejudices, though rigid,
give no trouble to others. Hungry or not, they are always ready to
march, and march all day and all night, if necessary. Still, the
Indo-Chinese races exceed even the ordinary Asiatic in reserve and
sphinx-like characteristics, and the Manipuris are an inscrutable
set. I had many intimate friends among them, yet, on the whole,
prefer the pure Hindoo.
What is now the valley of Manipur was evidently once a series of
valleys and ranges of hills, between the higher ranges which now border
it and converge to the south. The rivers now flowing through the valley
then flowed through it like the Barak, Eerung, and others, at a much
lower level. One of the great earthquakes, to which these regions are
so subject, closed the outlet and raised a permanent barrier; thus
a lake was formed, and in the course of ages the alluvium brought
down by the streams filled it up to its present level leaving the
Logtak Lake in its lowest part, a lake which has constantly lessened
and is still lessening in size. The crests of the sunken ranges are
still to be seen running down the valley, and mostly parallel to the
bordering ranges, such are Langol, Langthabal, Phoiching, Lokching,
and others. Sometimes a river, as at a place called "Eeroce Semba,"
runs at the base of a hill, and cuts away the alluvium, showing the
solid rock. This alluvium forms one of the deepest and richest soils
in the world.
I have referred to the proposed expedition to the Naga Hills, to aid
the troops there in the operations against the powerful village of
Mozuma. In order to take part in this expedition I had brought up one
hundred men of the 35th Native Infantry, from Cachar, and I started
from Manipur on December 3rd, 1877, having sent on the 35th and a
Manipuri force of over three hundred men under the Minister Bularam
Singh. I rode out the first day to Mayang Khang, a distance of forty
miles, where I caught up my men. I passed Sengmai at a distance of
thirteen miles on the border of the valley, and up to which the road
is flat, and soon entered a broken country, first grass, then scrub,
then forest. The road lay over a succession of spurs of the Kowpree
Hills which run down into a very narrow valley, and was as bad as
can be imagined--very steep ascents and descents. At last we reached
Kaithemabee, the second stage, and fourteen miles from Sengmai. It
is exceedingly picturesquely situated, having a splendid view of the
Kowpree range, here rising to over 8000 feet. The outpost is situated
on a high bank overlooking a stream, and beyond it a splendid rolling
slope of grass extending for miles.
All this part of the country is covered with beehive-shaped cairns,
built of well-selected stones. They are said to have been made by
the Koeereng Nagas, formerly a very powerful race, whose miserable
remnants now inhabit the neighbouring hills. Farther on the bee-hives
end suddenly, and a region of monoliths is entered. Probably both
monoliths and bee-hives were erected to commemorate great events
in the lives of the builders, the death of a chief, the birth of
a son, the giving of a great feast when a bison, or possibly many,
were killed. Monoliths are common, and exist all over the Naga Hills
and among the Kolarian and Dravidian tribes, as well as all over
Europe. Cairns also are common, but the beehive-shaped cairns are,
I believe, unique, and found only in Manipur and in this neighbourhood.
I reached Mayung Khang at 4 P.M., having an hour before crossed the
watershed, all the streams south of it falling into the tributaries of
the Chindwin Irrawaddy, all to the north running into the tributaries
of the Ganges and Burrhampooter.
Mayung Khang is a highly undulating grassy slope, the Kowpree rising
to nearly nine thousand feet in the west, while after crossing a small
stream a lower range closes it in on the east. We halted there for
the night close to a monolith, and the next day marched to Mythephum.
Mythephum or Muphum (lit. Manipuri settlement) was a small military
post, and we encamped below in a wide valley among recently cut
rice fields, with a river rushing by us. The place is so named from
having been a Manipuri settlement, in the old days before the Burmese
invasion. High hills rose above us on all sides, the valley running
in and out among them and following the course of the stream. To
our north, and at a distance of a mile or two, was the once powerful
village of Muram, still populous but submissive. I had a small but
most comfortable straw-built hut, and well remember how delightful the
early morning was next day, when I had breakfast at sunrise and saw
my thermometer at thirty-two degrees. Only those accustomed to great
heat realise the delights of a low thermometer. Mythephum is over
4000 feet above the sea, and being a low valley is often extremely
cold. Sometimes in winter the stream is for a day quite choked by
blocks of ice, and I have seen the thermometer at twenty-six degrees,
150 feet above the valley, which probably meant eighteen degrees at
the lowest level on the grass.
It was my intention to march on Mozuma by a track which would avoid
the powerful villages of Viswema, Kohima, Jotsuma and Konoma, and
enable me to attack the enemy in the rear. Half-way I was delayed
by receiving no letter from Mr. Carnegy, with whom I had to act in
concert, and this prevented me from reaching the scene of operations,
as I received the startling news that the Manipuri outpost of Kongal
Tannah on the borders of the Kubo valley had been attacked on December
14th by a party of men sent by the Rajah of Sumjok or Thoungdoot,
and eight men killed. This threw the whole population of Manipur into
a state of commotion, and the Maharajah begged me to return at once,
and I felt it my duty to do so, as my chief work was to protect Manipur
and its interests. I therefore returned to Manipur on December 17th,
leaving my party on the frontier, where they remained some time longer,
the Nagas being unwilling to submit; and making overtures instead to
the Maharajah Chandra Kirtee Singh. He sternly declined their offers,
and threatened that if they did not speedily yield to the British
authorities, he would send a large force to our aid.
The Naga Hills Campaign of that year had no further interest for
Manipur, and it had a sad ending for us, as Mr. Carnegy was accidently
shot by a sentry.
The "Kongal outrage," as it was thenceforth called, was so serious and
so evidently premeditated, that a most thorough inquiry was needed. It
took some time to collect evidence as wounded men had to be brought
in, and it was the end of the month before I was able to proceed to
the spot. At last I started and crossed the Yoma range of hills for
the first time. What a lovely march it was and what an anxious one,
as I left my wife not at all well, and no one but an ignorant and
not very sweet-tempered English nurse to look after her. However,
duty must come first, and off I started, posting relays of ponies on
the way to enable me to return quickly when the work was done. Thangal
Major accompanied me.
The first part of our march lay across the valley, and we began the
ascent of the hills at a place called Ingorok. After a wearisome ascent
of 3500 feet and a more gradual one along the crest, we made a rapid
descent of 4000 feet to the Turet river, where we encamped. The river
runs at the bottom of an exceedingly narrow valley, and the ascent on
both sides is one of the most wearisome I have ever made. On a dark
night lights on the hillside above, appear as stars from the bed of
the stream. The scenery was majestic, and the vegetation very fine. The
next day we commenced with a steep ascent of 2500 feet, and ended with
a descent of 3000 feet to the Maghung river. From the Maghung next
morning we started for Kongal Tannah, which we reached in good time.
I carefully examined the place and saw the charred remains of the
murdered men, and many bullets still sticking in the stockade. The
evidence being complete, I turned homewards, and by travelling
incessantly reached Manipur next morning to find that my wife had
presented me with another son, the first pure European child born in
Manipur. It had been an anxious time for me, and I was thankful to
find both her and the baby well. We named the baby Arthur.
I sent a full report of the Kongal case to the Government of India,
and a demand for reparation was made at the Court of Mandalay,
but it was not backed up with sufficient vigour. The outrage was
unprovoked, and nothing less than the execution of the ringleaders,
who were well known, would have satisfied Manipur, and, indeed,
the claims of justice, but though the case dragged on for years, no
redress was ever given. I predicted at the time that failure to do
justice would eventually lead to underhand reprisals on the part of
Manipur, as the Durbar could not understand our Government tolerating
an attack of this kind on a protected state, and naturally ascribed our
forbearance to weakness. I shall have to refer to the case farther on.