There was not a person who did not know the place of Parikhya, the Brahmin in the story of Sovereign Father’s household. Whoever knew him says even today, ‘Did you also know Parikhya? Wait, wait, let me tell you an amusing story about the two, Maharaja Churachand and him.’
The moment I decided to write about my sovereign father long ago, the bare-bodied man, with brilliant chandan marks on his face and pale pink scarf on his shoulder, came instantly to mind. When we got to know him, he was already quite old, but not only did he come to the palace, but he would always, never skipping a day, arrive in time for Sovereign Father’s mealtimes. We did not consider him as an outsider, though since we were children we did not think of him as being close to us, either. But there was no one in the family – mothers, brothers, sisters – who was not on good terms with him. The palace was full of stories about him. The truth is, this wonderful man was really nobody to Sovereign Father. He was not a blood relation like my sovereign father’s elder brother, Dumbrasingh. Nor was he like the powerful and astute Ipu Member Tomchou, the courtier who safeguarded Sovereign Father’s administrative and personal problems. Instead, he was the man who was the most intimate with Sovereign Father and was on first-name terms with him, able to scold, taunt, joke and make fun of him. He had also been a guardian. My sisters and my birthmother in particular, told me many stories about him.
What we children remembered best about the Brahmin was during the time of the chariot festival of Lord Govinda. We saw him attired in a maroon pheijom of raw silk and resplendent in holy beads, sacred thread and gold chain with a gilded cowrie pendant. We saw him wearing this gold chain on other occasions too. We loved some things about the palace chariot festival during my sovereign father’s reign. The palace chariot was enormous; even elephants were used to pull it. Otherwise it was mostly soldiers from the Manipur police department who pulled the chariot. It is unfortunate that there is no video of the spectacle of Parikhya the Brahmin riding in the chariot, a long stick in his hand, stomping his feet as was the custom, at the four wooden horses pulling it. Another feature was the two puppets that poked their heads out from the rear of the chariot, clapping their hands, (though we do not know who made them do it), and making the crowds laugh. At that time, Sovereign Father, dressed in purified robes, would be seated near the gods Balabhadra, Subadhra and Jagabondhu. My favourite idols back in those days were of the three Jagabondhu brother-sister siblings. I still like them and continue to worship them. I think that there can be no idols designed in folk-art that are as beautiful in the entire world.
Once the chariot returned from the procession, Parikhya the Brahmin would take on a new role. Holding the same stick that he used before on the chariot when he played the charioteer, and still wearing the same attire, he would chase those assembled at the palace and beat them. They would laugh and run away from him. My mothers and sisters too would be beaten. This ritual spectacle offered to the Brahmin to absolve one’s sins marked the end of the palace chariot festival. We children used to be really frightened. I would hide under the quilt on my wet nurse’s bed, bathed in sweat. Our younger sister Sanatombi and younger brother Prince Maipaksana may not have known Parikhya the Brahmin as we did. They were very small then.
So, who then was Parikhya the Brahmin? I must tell or the stories that I want to narrate may not be complete. They are very touching stories. An account of the relationship between the child king and Parikhya the Brahmin would be filled with many tender episodes. Just the other day, Tada Khelchandra recounted an interesting anecdote about the two. Those who knew or heard such stories continue to relate them to me. So if anybody were to write a biography of Maharaja Churachand, I would like to say that it would be amiss to forget a chapter on Parikhya the Brahmin.
Parikhya was a Brahmin from Khwai Bramhapur. His name was Thabal; they say he was also called Thabalmacha. It seems the name Parikhya referred to a post in the Council of Brahmins. He would have been appointed to the post when Sovereign Father was a grown up ruler. When the child king was sent at the age of eleven to the school for princes in Ajmer, Thabalmacha the Brahmin, who was then a strapping young man, was sent along to look after the king and to conduct the services for the Lord Bishnuthakur. He also prepared the king’s meals. I heard Thabalmacha had been, as a young man, an attendant to Maharaja Surchandra. He had served, it was said, as a boy, from the time the divine king Maharaja Surchandra sought asylum under the British in Calcutta. So being a bright young Brahmin well-versed in languages, Princess Sanatombi and Maxwell picked him to accompany the child king when he was sent to Ajmer. Therefore Thabalmacha the Brahmin took care of the child king, scolding and disciplining him as an older brother would. We heard him talk to the king using the casual mode of address.
It was a Brahmin with this background who made unreasonable demands after Sovereign Father became king. Once he said to the king –
‘You are the king now. You have the power in your hands. You must create a post for me.’
‘What kind of post?’
‘I want to be a member of the Durbar.’
At the time, the Durbar was the highest and most important institution of all. Only a select few could be its members. Even if the king held the power, it was not easy for a person like Parikhya, who was not too well-educated, to be appointed a member of the Durbar. It is said my sovereign father responded,
‘Please ask for something else. There are some complications.’
‘Then I am leaving. I looked after you when you were very little. And you won’t even appoint me….’
And he stomped out of the palace. He did not come back for quite a long time.
The two often quarrelled in this manner. It was during such incidents that my sovereign father would consult my birthmother, the Lady Ngangbam. My birthmother told me, ‘Your sovereign father suffered a great deal whenever Parikhya was angry.’ One day the Lady Ngangbam, at the bidding of Sovereign Father, summoned Parikhya the Brahmin, saying that the maharani wanted to see him. Parikhya came as he could not refuse the maharani’s orders. Sovereign Father stayed hidden. The Lady Ngangbam waited for Parikhya the Brahmin in the veranda of the main palace. The Brahmin arrived and paid his respects to the maharani:
‘Your humble servant awaits the maharani’s word.’
‘His Highness has been in tears since the day you left in anger.’
‘Why is he crying?’
‘His Highness is not in a position to exercise his power here. The member for the lower court will be appointed today. Please come out….’
The Lady Ngangbam called out to the child king and made him offer pieces of gold and silver that had been prepared earlier to the Brahmin. Sovereign Father then emerged and embraced Parikhya the Brahmin and both bawled their eyes out. All who saw this wiped tears from their eyes. My mother told me this story often in great detail.
But I do not know if Parikhya the Brahmin ever attended the lower court regularly as a member. We saw him come to the palace in the early hours of the morning. As for my sovereign father, it is said he consoled Parikhya the Brahmin by saying that the Durbar was a British affair, whereas attending the lower court was the ultimate honour from the time of our royal ancestors. The simple Parikhya believed this. But this place of affection that Parikhya the Brahmin held in the palace made some people hate him.
In those times, there were selected personal palace chefs who prepared Sovereign Father’s meals. These were distinguished cooks who were not only known for their culinary skills but who were socially adept and implicitly trustworthy. In those times all the rice, vegetables, fish and the like that were to be cooked that day for my father would be prepared and sent over by the queen mother, Numitleima Lalitamanjuri, the Maid of Moirangthem. This could have been for reasons of security. I do not know for certain. We used to see Parikhya the Brahmin bringing the very first vegetables of the season early in the morning – chantruk herbs48, pea shoots, sprays of mustard leaf, and so on – that he was said to pick up as he took his short cut through the market. It was said that the women vendors in the market often gave the newest and freshest for the king for free. The moment he arrived, Parikhya the Brahmin would head straight to the royal kitchen and cook a dish or two for Sovereign Father. And it is said Sovereign Father would pick out only the dishes cooked by the Brahmin to eat. And so the palace cooks would whisper angrily, why not just call Parikhya and have him do all the cooking, and so on. I heard Thabalmacha the Brahmin had endured all the fuss over food made by Sovereign Father when he was in Ajmer. He had encountered the king’s gripes. There are many such stories. There were many instances of angry spells and pique with Parikhya the Brahmin. But Sovereign Father so favoured him that, when Jeffery Saheb49 brought electric power to the palace for the first time, a second connection was made for Parikhya the Brahmin. The people of the land could not say anything, nor did they resent it. We addressed Parikhya the Brahmin’s son Krishnachandra as a brother. Even to this day, we have not severed our ties with the family of Parikhya the Brahmin.
There is one thing about Parikhya the Brahmin that I think it necessary for me to mention. This too is another story about the Brahmin that I heard recently. This outwardly simple man who was loved by the people, this Thambalmacha the Brahmin, was very protective when it came to Sovereign Father and looked after him very closely. It was said that he was also very discreetly well versed in the art of politics. I came to know of this from Pundit Khelchandra, who said, Parikhya the Brahmin was not an ordinary man. Whenever Sovereign Father acted impetuously or on his whims, he was a pillar of protection. When it came to matters that could tarnish Sovereign Father’s reputation, he did not hold back anything in scolding the child king he had reared from boyhood. And so I think, what we need in this present era are people to emerge who can set straight and shepherd the power-intoxicated who govern us: powerful men like Parikhya the Brahmin who would overrule the rulers of today. Then Manipur would not merely be golden but would be studded with gems.