The beautiful house and estate that is the Chief Minister’s residence today, and which is also known as the Junior Sahib’s bungalow, was really a house built for Maharaja Churachand to stay in when he came home on his holidays when he was a student in Ajmer. In those days, even though he was the king, he was still a minor, a young student who was still learning. He had not yet begun to govern. The palace too, along with the Lord Govinda himself, was in a place called Purana Rajbari in Nongmeibung. But it seems the British government and their representatives wanted to keep the child king a little separate. They did not want to keep him in the palace along with the others. There must have been a reason for this too. Today I think that even though the British sought to annex Manipur as a colony and subjugate it, their representatives were not all oppressive. Many incidents have taken place. European heads have rolled before the Dragon Gate18. But it was not as if there were no officers among them who did not want to know Manipur and view it with a new perspective.
I heard that after Sovereign Father had been declared the king of Manipur at a very young age, the child Churachand became very trying, pampered and spoiled. He made such a fuss over his baths that he made his sisters-in-law, who had barely even cut their maiden hair19, carry him on their backs and jump in with him into the bathing pool. So the superior British may not have wanted to keep him there among such people. This too was said – the British did not want to totally erase the institution of monarchy in Manipur. Amusana20, the youngest great-grandson of Maharaja Narasingh, was appointed king after much deliberation. But it is not right for us to forget that the men who came as officers of Britain and as scholars invariably left behind records of Manipur: many books and documents with the ingredients of history and the flavour of literature. We use these as a resource even today. My Three Years in Manipur, a beautiful account written by a widow whose husband had been beheaded there, gained renown. It is true: they are a people who like to write things down. The Meiteis, too, are a race that loves to document.
Around this time, Ngangbam Jugolsingh left Khamran and relocated once again to Yaiskul Hiruhanba Leikai. They did not want to live too far away after the looting. They say that this was also the time that the teenage Maharaja Churachand would come home for his holidays. There were three maidens in Yaiskul then, and all three were named Ibemcha: Ngangbam Ibemcha, Keisam Ibemcha and Ibemcha the Brahmin. They were known for their unruliness, talent, and beauty, and all three were famous at playing kang21. People even came from afar to recruit Ngangbam Ibemcha for their kang games. But her mother Thambalngangbi, the Maid of Yumnam, did not approve of this. And so she always chaperoned her. These Yaiskul maidens also used to go to the palace at the Purana Rajbari to dance in the Raas22, and when they did so, they had to take a short cut by the bungalow built for the child king to stay in during his holidays. I heard that the king saw Ngangbam Ibemcha at this time and fell in love with her. They got to know each other. At times, he would follow her on horseback to Ngangbam regardless of what time of day it was. In those days, the Royal Water Bearer of Yumnam was a well-known courtier to the king. He was Ibemcha’s maternal uncle. So one day Ngangbam Jugolsingh said to his brother-in-law, ‘Tell the child king not to come fooling around here, Brother-in-law. Inform his elder brother. It is not proper; he is the king.’
But Churachand the child king was determined to make Ibemcha, Maid of Ngangbam, his queen. So the word spread after he had assumed powers as the king. The king’s mother and older brother Dumbrasingh were informed, as were his relatives – and even the Political Agent was notified.
Once, around this time, his older brother sent some noblemen from the palace to Ngangbam. They came to talk with Ngangbam Jugolsingh. The palace contingent asked Jugolsingh, ‘Which ancestral lineage of Ngangbam do you belong to, Uncle?’ and so on. Jugolsingh, descendant of princes, did not answer. He did not speak for a fairly long time and then he said, ‘Our Ngangbam family is a good one.’ He did not utter another word, it is said. This story is one that the Ngangbam clan tells with fondness and pride. People said. ‘Isn’t it said they are from a village?’ This was also rumoured about Ibemcha. Even today, some people ask where the maharani the Lady Ngangbam was born.
When they heard that the king fancied Ngangbam Ibemcha, the Ngangbam clan was very pleased and even the neighbourhood was very glad. And how my grandmother, Ibemcha’s mother, fussed about! But Jugolsingh, descendant of princes, was not very concerned and continued to live in the past. He continued to remember, and wept, recalling the stories of the past. News came on one occasion that Major Maxwell, the Political Agent at the time, and the king, would come to Ngangbam to see Ibemcha. It was winter. The Ngangbam homestead was filled with anticipation. What was to be done, what with the Ngangbam household being so untidy and unkempt, with only a sliver of a courtyard offering what little space there was? Jugolsingh, descendant of princes, did not even trim a blade of grass. His sons were all still very little then.
The king came one day in advance, after dark. He came to see what they lacked, even bringing down chairs from the palace to sit on. They say he gave expensive dresses and shawls for Ibemcha to wear. He did not meet Jugolsingh. My uncle Shyamkishor, the chieftain of Yaiskul, told me these stories later in great detail. I also learned that when a maiden from a commoner’s family was to marry a king, she would, by tradition, be brought to the palace a day or two earlier. Women today ask, why was this? What was the reason? And so they should. We are told that right from the ancient days of Manipur, a firmly held belief was that the king could not enter a commoner’s house. Why was that? The kings from the lineage of Lord Pakhangba cannot enter the traditional Meitei house where Lord Sanamahi reigns23. I do not know if there are any reasons other than this. Therefore my mother Ngangbam Ibemcha had to be brought to the palace and married to the king there.
When we began to understand, when our Ibungo24 Joysana and I both became aware, Ngangbam Ibemcha was already Maharani Dhanamanjuri, the Lady Ngangbam. The maharani’s quarter we lived in was lovely. The large mansion was a tile-roofed bungalow. There was a little bungalow, a pavilion, a long row of living quarters, a flower garden and orchard, and a small pool, with red lilies and blue irises and a boat. In addition, there was a greenhouse built by the British engineer of the day. Sunlight filtered into it through the flowering vines that climbed over it. I loved this greenhouse. I spent many an afternoon playing in there all alone, talking to the small birds.
This was our house. This was our household. It felt a little close to my sovereign father because he came often to the Lady Ngangbam’s quarter. Sometimes he would fall asleep in my mother’s beautiful bedroom. He would talk with my birthmother. But we never got very close to either the king or the queen. We slept with our respective wet-nurses in separate rooms, in separate beds. So I used to call my wet-nurse ‘Mother’. I grew up on her milk. For that reason, the wet-nurses of the palace were women who held a very high status. It was the tradition that when princesses got married, their respective wet-nurses rode out in front in palanquins carpeted in royal red.
As the maharani the Lady Ngangbam was clever and was consulted frequently by the king, she often accompanied him on formal and state occasions. It was whispered about in the palace; they said, The Lady of Ngangbam dominates everything. What with the Lady Ngangbam being rather haughty, there were many who disapproved of her. My birthmother became a woman quick to absorb and fond of learning even though she hailed from a modest background. Importantly, Maharaja Surchandra’s queen Premamoyee was my mother’s distant aunt. So Maharani Premamoyee called on her frequently and taught her the customs, manners and etiquette becoming of the queen of the land.
The rivalry among the princes of our divine sovereign Chandrakirti brought Manipur under foreign rule. But the two consorts of Maharaja Surchandra and Crown Prince Koireng were sisters. The sisters were both Maids of Ngangbam. So even if their men were rivals, they were close because of their wives. Therefore when another Maid of Ngangbam became the queen again, Maharani Premamoyee and grandmother Angangmacha, consort to the crown prince, rejoiced. They advised Ibemcha, the maharani the Lady Ngangbam a good deal. There are two Meitei queens in Manipur’s history whom I hold in the highest esteem. One is Maharani Kumudini the Lady Meisnam, the queen of Maharaja Gambhirsingh, Embracer of Shans, and the other is Maharaja Surchandra’s queen, Premamoyee. I barely knew Her Highness Premamoyee but my grandmother, the consort to the crown prince, Tikendrajit’s queen, came to our house very often. I got to see her. In this way, because of kin ties to the Ngangbam clan, we were very close to Tamo25 Madhuryya, Tikendrajit’s royal grandson.