Manipuri Kshatriya

Ningthouja (Manipuri Kshatriya)

Thang-ta practitioner with spear and shield.
Total population
1,000,000+[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Mostly in Manipur, also in Assam.
Languages
Meitei
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Rajputs, Kshatriyas

Manipuri Kshatriya is a Hindu Kshatriya caste in Manipur, India. Census reports from Maniput in 1883 note that nearly all Manpiuris in the Valley of Manipur professed to be Kshatriya. This group was descended from the Meitei, a tribe which absorbed the three other neighboring tribes, and was converted to Hinduism in 1720 AD, and attached themselves to the Kshatryia caste.^[1][2]

Subdivisions

They are divided in to seven exogamous clans (yek-salai): Ningthouja, Angom, Luwang, Kuman, Khaba-Nganba, Chenglei & Moirang. These clans are further divided in to several subclans or yumnaks. Each subclan is further divided in to lineages or sagei.

Customs

The Manipuri Kshatriya call themselves Khatriya and usually wear the sacred thread across the chest. Traditionally meat dishes were avoided, although fish was permitted. However nowadays consumption of meat is very common. Orthodox Meiteis eat food outside only when it is cooked by Brahmins. They usually refuse to have food cooked by other castes. ^[3] Endogamy is generally followed, but Brahmin-Kshatriya marriages are not that unusual.^[4]

References

1. ^ Various census of India. 1883. pp. 147–. http://books.google.com/books?id=fQEJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA147. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
2. ^ Dhirendra Narain; University of Bombay. Dept. of Sociology; Indian Council of Social Science Research (1989). Research in sociology: abstracts of M.A. and Ph. D. dissertations completed in the Department of Sociology, University of Bombay. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 157–. ISBN 9788170222354. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0yED5k62TsC&pg=PA157. Retrieved 2 August 2011. 
3. ^ Sipra Sen (August 1992). Tribes and castes of Manipur: description and select bibliography. Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788170993100. http://books.google.com/books?id=bQQNCU-QWBAC+. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
4. ^ Hamlet Bareh (2001). Encyclopaedia of North-East India: Manipur. Mittal Publications. pp. 277–. ISBN 9788170997900. http://books.google.com/books?id=XScmdGvMf7IC&pg=PA277%3C%2Fref%3E. Retrieved 1 August 2011.