1. Respectful form of ‘mother’ used to address royalty.
2. One’s real mother, as distinct from stepmothers who are also called ‘mothers’.
3. Author’s traditional Manipuri name.
6. Kangla is the historic fort in Imphal and seat of the kings of Manipur. The British presence in Manipur began in 1826 when the Burmese were expelled from Manipur and surrounding regions by the Manipur Levy, commanded by Captain F.J. Grant of the East India Company and Maharaja Gambhir Singh of Manipur. The Burmese and the British recognized Manipur as an independent kingdom in the subsequent Treaty of Yandaboo of 1826. Until 1891, the relations between the British and the kingdom, its buffer state against the Burmese, was guided by the 1833 treaty between Maharaja Gambhir Singh and the East India Company. By 1884, the British had started unilaterally referring to Manipur as an independent as well as a protected state as they were providing arms to the Maharaja’s military. After the conquest of Manipur on April 27,1891, the question as to whether to annex Manipur or not was debated intensively by the British parliament. It was officially decided against, Churachand being appointed to the throne instead, and Manipur became a Protected State of the British Indian Empire under the British paramountcy.
7. The royal deity of Manipur.
8. The estate occupied by the palace at Nongmeibung.
9. Major Horatio St. John Maxwell, Political Agent of Manipur (1891-1905).
10. Kangsabodh, the story of Krishna’s early life, when his uncle, Kangsa of Mathura, sets out to kill the infant.
11. Hijam Irabot, the Communist leader.
12. Form of respectful address, meaning Teacher, used also to address any highly educated person.
13. Sandalwood marks worn on the forehead and nose by Vaishnav Hindus.
14. Also known as Tombisana.
15. A simple dish of mashed potato and dried fish.
16. Fond term for a woman of noble birth.
17. Respectful term meaning Older Brother, used to address an older man, related or not.
18. The entrance to the citadel in Kangla Fort, the seat of Manipuri monarchy, is guarded by two large sculptures of mythical horned beasts called Sha.
19. Unmarried Manipuri girls wore their hair with a fringe upon reaching adolescence.
20. The informal family name of Churachand.
21. A traditional game played with discs between two teams.
22. A ritual dance of worship about Krishna and Radha, considered the apex of classical Manipuri dance.
23. In Manipuri mythology, Lord Pakhangba stole the birthright to rule the world from Lord Sanamahi, his elder brother, who then is given the common household as his realm. The Ningthouja kings are believed to be descended from Lord Pakhangba.
24. A respectful term for a younger boy.
25. Respectful term for older brother, more formal than Tada.
26. Children have their heads shaved and their ears pierced around the age of three.
27. An elevated rank of singers who take turns to narrate the sequences of the Raas by song.
28. Another name of Radha, the consort of Krishna.
29. A ritual dance worship performed about the life of the Vaishnav saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534).
30. Respectful term meaning Older Sister.
31. Stories about the monkhood of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
32. Expressing the Manipuri belief that by giving her a name with ‘youngest’ (Tombi) in it, there would be no more daughters.
33. A sweet dish of flattened rice, fruit and yogurt.
34. A child’s way of saying Pabung Sanakhya, meaning Sovereign Father.
35. Paurush Pather (The Philosopher’s Stone) a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.
36. Grandfather, used for an elderly man.
37. A doctor of traditional medicine.
38. Gangmumei Kamei, writer and professor of Manipuri history.
39. Writer Khaidem Pramodini, a close friend of the author.
40. Maharaj Kumar Priyabrata, later Crown Prince under Maharaja Bodhchandra and Manipur’s first Chief Minister.
41. A photograph of Crown Princess Rampyari was discovered after the publication of the book and is included in this edition.
42. Annual ritual singing at the palace temple of Govinda by the royal ladies of the Narasingh lineage.
43. India’s national honors list.
44. This essay was the first one the author wrote about Maharaja Churachand. It appeared in Poknapham before it ran The Maharaja’s Household as a series.
45. World War I.
46. Original title: Jati Koubi Sak’henbi.
47. Dr. Raj Kumar Nimai Singh, son of Prince Khedasana.
48. Shepherd’s purse.
49. Charles Frederick Jeffery, Chief Engineer of Manipur, hired by Maharaja Churachand.
50. Nung’gairakta Chandramukhi (1965), collected short stories.
51. Every Raas performance features dancers playing gopis, maidens from the cow herding community of Braj.
52. Maharaja Birendra Kishore Manikya of Tripura (1909-1923).
53. A national hero who was a great warrior and horseman, Maibam Tamrasingh was famous for his epic four-day race on foot and horseback carrying documents for Maharaja Chandrakirti’s durbar with Viceroy Lord Northbrook in 1874.
54. The Cheitharol Kumbaba, the court chronicle of Manipur. It is maintained, even to the present day, by scholars appointed to the court of the Ningthouja dynasty, with records going back to the first century A.D.
55. A Manipuri stringed instrument with a percussive bow.
56. The meeting of Maharaja Chandrakirti with Viceroy Lord Northbrook on the banks of the Barak River in 1874.
57. A women writers’ circle founded by the author.
58. Tombisana High School, a boys school, was torn down by the state in 2014 to build a shopping mall.
59. Manipuri men’s lower garment like an Indian dhoti.
60. The Delhi Durbar, the ‘Court of Delhi’ or the Imperial Durbar, was held in India in 1911 to mark the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary.
61. Traditional Manipuri sarong.
62. Karna Kunti Sangbad from Rabindranath Tagore’s collection of poems, Kahini, 1900. The recording is now lost.
63. India’s national academy of letters.
64. William McCulloch, Political Agent of Manipur, 1844-62, 1863-67.
65. An Account of the Valley of Munnipore and of the Hill Tribes, William McCulloch, 1859.
66. An older name for Manipur, literally ‘Land of the Meiteis’.
67. A traditional border design.
68. Imagi Ningthem, directed by Aribam Syam Sharma, 1981.
69. Prince Priyabrata, also known as Sanayaima.
70. Meghe Dhaka Tara, 1960.
71. A derivative from mem saheb, the term for British ladies.
72. Princess Sanatombi, the daughter of Maharaja Surchandra, was the native wife of Political Agent, Major Maxwell, and the subject of the writer’s historical novel, Boro Sahib Ongbi Sanatombi (1976).
73. Major Ranenglao (Bob) Khathing, Hills Minister under Chief Minister M.K. Priyabrata’s administration.
74. Rev. William Pettigrew, the first Christian missionary to come to Manipur, arrived in Manipur in 1894.
75. Christopher Gimson (1933-46) was actually the third last Political Agent, but the last major one before the transition years after World War II and Indian independence.
76. Most of the photographs in this book come from Princess Tombisana’s album that she gave to the writer.
77. World War II came to Manipur in May 1942, with the bombing of Imphal by the Japanese.
78. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, who was Mahatma Gandhi’s friend and physician, was Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 till his death in 1962.
79. Yengkhom Roma, the Manipuri film and theater actress.
80. Bengali novelists Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt.
81. Crown Prince Tikendrajit, was also known as Koireng.
82. Pather Dabi, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, 1926.
83. Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay, the Bengali novelist.
84. An Indian stringed instrument.
85. Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya of Tripura (1923-1947).
86. K. Sobita Devi, Curator of the Manipur State Museum.
87. Laundrymen in Manipur are Indians from the mainland, even today.
88. The Court office that handled relations with the hill tribes surrounding the kingdom.
89. Princess Thambalsana leaving the House of Hijam and remarrying into the House of Khongbantabam, while socially acceptable, would be unusual for a woman of her rank and would have posed complications.
90. Maharani Kumudini fled to British India with her son, the Child King Chandrakirti, in 1844 after her failed assassination attempt on Regent, later Maharaja, Narasingh. They returned after the latter’s death in 1850.
91. Another house belonging to Maharaja Churachand.
92. Lalitmanjuri was the widow of Prince Chaobiyaima, the son of Crown Prince Bhubonsingh and the grandson of Maharaja Narasingh.
93. The scholar never wrote the foreword in his advanced years.
94. Manipuri kings, including Maharaja Churachand, built temple residences in the pilgrim town of Nabadwip, a historic centre of Vaishnavism in Bengal. These often served as a Court away from Manipur.
95. Maharaja Churachand died on November 6, 1941.