The Puyas are archaic Manipuri manuscripts. They encompass a wide spectrum of themes including
genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
,
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
,
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
,
royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...
, administration,
creation
Creation or The Creation or Creations, may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Creation'' (1922 film), a British silent drama
* ''Creation'' (unfinished film), 1931
* ''Creation'' (2009 film), about Charles Darwin
Literature
* ''Creation ...
and
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
,
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
,
religious belief
A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief ...
s, etc.
Saroj Parratt noted in 2005 that none of these Puyas were yet to be dated by professional historians or subject to serious textual-critical scrutiny. Consequently, she criticized the tendency of local authors to treat puyas as reliable sources in their reconstruction of Manipuri history. Scholars have noted that puyas had been forged by
Meitei nationalists to support their
reinvention of history and tradition.
See also
*
Meitei literature
Meitei literature, also known as Manipuri literature, is literature written in the Meitei language of Manipur. An ancient institution of learning, the ''Luwang Nonghumsang'', later known as the ''Pandit Loishang'', collected sources of indige ...
*
Sanamahism
Sanamahism , also known as Meiteism , or Lainingthouism is an ethnic religion of the Meitei people of Manipur, in Northeast India. It is a polytheistic religion and is named after Lainingthou Sanamahi, one of the most important deities of ...
*
Puya Meithaba
Puya Meithaba (''Burning of the puya''), or Lairik Meithaba, refers to the annual commemoration of a legendary 18th-century scripture burning in post-colonial Manipur by a neo-convert Vaishnavite King, or to the original libricide of Puyas itsel ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{History
Meitei language
Meitei culture
History of Manipur
Sanamahism