The Lushei Kuki Clans 31

The Lushei Kuki Clans 31

[The Rangte.] This is a small clan which, after various vicissitudes,

has settled down in thirteen hamlets, containing 372 houses, under

their own chiefs in the south-western hills of Manipur. They claim

connection with the Thados, but resemble the Lushais in many respects,

which no doubt is due to their sojourn among them. They also claim

relationship with the Vaiphei. They say that their original villages

were on two hills called Phaizang and Koku, whence they were ejected

by the Chins and took refuge with Poiboi, one of the Sailo chiefs who

opposed us in 1871, whence they migrated northwards to their present

place of abode. Their language shows that their claim to being allied

to the Thado is not without foundation. The clan is divided into

eleven eponymous families, named after Thanghlum and his ten sons,

Thanghlum being supposed to be the son of Rangte. The constitution of

the villages is practically the same as that of the Lushais, except

that there are no zawlbuks. The young unmarried men sleep in the house

of the girl they like best. An attractive young lady may have several

admirers sleeping in her house, and they will continue to sleep there

until she expresses a preference for one of them. Marriage is not

very strictly limited, but matches with another member of the clan

or with some member of one of the Thado families are most usual. The

price of a wife--"manpui"--is one blue cloth, one mattress, and three

mithan, which is paid to the nearest male relative to the bride on the

father's side, but besides this the bride's paternal uncle receives

one mithan, which is termed "mankang." If there be three brothers, A,

B, and C, B will take the mankang of A's daughters, C that of B's,

and A that of C's. Should a man have no brothers some near relative

will take his daughter's mankang. The eldest son inherits everything,

and is looked on as the head of the family. He receives the "manpui"

of all the females, and in his verandah are hung all the trophies of

the chase obtained by his brothers and their children, but on the death

of one of these brothers the connection ceases, and the deceased's

eldest son inherits his property and is looked on as the head of the

family by his younger brothers. Like the Vuite, the Rangte claim that

sodomy is unknown among them. In their religious beliefs they employ

the nomenclature of the Thados, though there is a little variation. The

place of Pupawla on the road to Mi-thi-khua is taken by an old woman,

named Kul-lo-nu, who is evidently the same as the Thado Kulsamnu, who

troubles all except the Thangchhuah. Thlan-ropa is known as "Dapa,"

but the legends regarding him are similar to those told by the Lushais.

 

On the birth of a female child, zu is drunk, but should the child be

a son, a pig and a fowl have to be killed, and three days later the

puithiam comes and sprinkles the mother with water, muttering charms

as he does so, after which ceremony she can go out. Immediately after a

death everyone present seizes the nearest weapon and slashes wildly at

the walls, posts, shelves, and partitions, shouting, "You have killed

him! We will cut you limb from limb, whoever you may be." The young

men then go out in search of wild birds and beasts, the bodies of

which are hung on posts round the grave. The corpse is adorned with

the head-dress of hornbill's feathers, as among the Vuite and most

of the Old Kuki clans. The corpses of ordinary persons are buried

without much ceremony close to the house, but the Thangchhuah are

carried round the village, as among the Khawtlang, and then enclosed

in hollow tree trunks, and kept for periods varying from two months

to a year in special sheds, with fires smouldering beneath them,

after which the bones are buried. In this it will be noticed that

the Rangte custom is a composite of Lushei, Vuite, and Khawtlang.

 

Lukawng is only paid if the deceased has been a great hunter or

warrior. In their marriage ceremonies the Rangte differ but little

from the Lushais. The "Khal" sacrifices are omitted, but most of the

others are performed.

 

Thangchhuah honours are attained by giving only two feasts--the

"Chong," at which a hen has to be sacrificed and two pigs and a mithan

killed, and the "Mai-thuk-kai," at which two mithan, three pigs,

and a hen have to be killed. The guests hold hands and form a circle

round the house of the giver of the feast, who has to anoint the head

of each of them with pig's fat. The Buh-Ai is unknown, but the Ai of

wild animals is performed as among the Lushais.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER III

 

THE OLD KUKI CLANS

 

 

The term Old Kukis has long been applied to the clans which

suddenly appeared in Cachar about 1800, the cause of which eruption

I have explained when dealing with the history of the Lushais, but

Dr. Grierson in the Linguistic Survey has included in this group a

number of clans which had long been settled in Manipur territory, and

my enquiries all go to prove the correctness of this classification. It

appears practically certain that the ancestors of the Old Kukis and the

Lushais were related and lived very close together somewhere in the

centre of the hills on the banks of the Tyao and Manipur rivers. The

Old Kuki clans of Manipur seem to have been the first to move, as

records of their appearance there are found in the Manipur chronicle

as early as the sixteenth century, and, though the chronology of

the chronicle is not beyond suspicion, I think this may be taken as

proof that these clans appeared in Manipur a good deal earlier than

their relations the Bete and Rhangkhol entered Cachar. What the cause

of this move was it is impossible to say. Probably quarrels with

their neighbours, coupled with a desire for better land, combined

to cause the exodus, and the movement, once started, had to continue

till the clans found a haven of rest in Manipur, as their relatives

did centuries later in British territory; for they were small, weak

communities, at the mercy of the stronger clans, through whose lands

they passed.

 

All these Old Kuki clans are organised far more democratically than

the Lushais or Thados. Lieut. Stewart in his Notes on Northern Cachar

says:--"There is no regular system of government among the Old Kukis

and they have no hereditary chiefs as among the New ones. A headman

called the 'ghalim' is appointed by themselves over each village,

but he is much more a priest than a potentate, and his temporal power

is much limited. Internal administration among them always takes

a provisional form. When any party considers himself aggrieved, he

makes an appeal to the elders, or the most powerful householders in

the village, by inviting them to dinner and plying them with victuals

and wine."

 

Among the clans which settled early in Manipur, each village has been

provided with a number of officials with high-sounding titles and

little power, in imitation of the Manipur system. Among those who have

settled in British territory the ghalim has been transformed into the

"gaonbura"--i.e., head of the village--and has acquired a certain

amount of authority, whilst among the Khawtlang and Khawchhak clans,

which after various vicissitudes, including a more or less lengthy

sojourn among the Lushais, recently entered Manipur territory, the

ghalim has become a feeble imitation of a Lushai lal.

 

 

 

The Old Kuki Clans of Manipur.

 

Under this heading I propose dealing with the Aimol, Anal, Chawte,

Chiru, Kolhen, Kom, Lamgang, Purum, Tikhup, and Vaiphei, who are now

found in various parts of the hills bordering the Manipur valley,

and who resemble each other in very many respects. In spite of this

resemblance, the clans, while acknowledging their relationship to

one another, keep entirely apart, living in separate villages and

never intermarrying.

 

In the Manipur chronicle the Chiru and Anal are mentioned as early

as the middle of the sixteenth century, while the Aimol make their

first appearance in 1723. They are said to have come from Tipperah,

but at that time the eastern boundary of Tipperah was not determined,

and the greater part of the present Lushai Hills district was supposed

to be more or less under the control of the Rajah of that State. A

short distance to the east of Aijal there is a village site called

Vai-tui-chhun--i.e., the watering place of the Vai--which is said to

commemorate a former settlement of the Vaiphei. It seems probable,

therefore, that the Aimol and Vaiphei left their former homes in

consequence of the forward movement of the Lusheis. The remaining

tribes all claim to have come from various places to the south of

Manipur--the Anal from the Haubi peak, the Chiru from "the Hranglal

hill far away in the south," the Kom from the Sakripung hill in the

Chin Hills; the other clans can give no nearer definition of the home

of their forefathers than far away to the south. Like the Lushais,

they all assert that they are descended from couples who issued

out of the earth, the Chhinglung of the Lushais being replaced by

"Khurpui"--i.e., the great hole.

 

The Anal assert that two brothers came out of a cave on the

Haubi peak, and that the elder was the ancestor of the Anals,

while the younger went to the valley of Manipur and became king of

the valley. Another tradition says that the Manipuris, Anals, and

Thados are the descendants of three men, whose father was the son

of Pakhangba, the mythical snake-man ancestor of the Manipuri royal

family, who, taking the form of an attractive youth, overcame the

scruples of a maiden engaged in weeding her jhum (compare Hodson's

"Meitheis," page 12). These legends were probably invented after the

clans had come in contact in order to account for the resemblances

between them. The Chiru claim to be descended from Rezar, the son

of Chongthu, the ancestor of the clan of that name still found in

the Lushai Hills, whose name also appears in the Thado pedigree. The

Lamgang tell the following tale:--On the Kangmang hill, away to the

south, there is a cave. Out of this came a man and a woman, and were

eaten up by a tiger which was watching. A god who had two horns,

seeing this horrible sight, came out and drove away the tiger,

and so the next couple to emerge escaped and became the ancestors

of the Lamgang. The Purum claim to be descended from Tonring and

Tonshu, who issued from the earth. It is said that "Pu rum" means

"hide from tiger," which connects them closely with the Lamgang

legend. The Kolhen's ancestors were a man and woman who sprang out

of Khurpui provided with a basket and a spear, and lived at Talching,

and had a son and daughter called Nairung and Shaithatpal, the direct

descendants of whom are said still to be found among the Kolhen.

 

The Chawte told me the tale of the peopling of the world out of a hole

in the ground, adding the graphic touch that an inquisitive monkey

lifted up a stone which lay over the opening, and thus allowed their