Refashioning Kingship in Manipur in the 18th Century

The Politico-Religious Projects of Garibniwaz and Bhāgyacandra

Bibliographic Data

ID3226594
AuthorsRodney Sebastian (0000-0003-4041-1325, Manhattan College, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume12
Issue12
Pages1041
Publication date2021-11-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12121041
OpenAlexW3215436976
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited4

In the 18th century, Manipuri kings Garibniwaz and Bhāgyacandra sought to transform the indigenous religious landscape to absorb Vaiṣṇava beliefs and practices due to increasing contact with other Indian states and hostilities with Burma. Garibniwaz aligned himself with the Rāmānandī Vaiṣṇava tradition because he saw it as an effective way to increase his military prowess. He refashioned kingship to portray himself as a warrior king and a devotee of Rāmā. However, he met with resistance from other royal elites for oppressing the indigenous religious practices of Manipur. In contrast, Bhāgyacandra aligned himself with the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition and established his sovereignty on the basis of being a devotee of Krishna and patron of the indigenous gods. By carefully curating a hybrid religious schema, he was able to refashion Manipur kingship for generations to come. I compare the two strategies of negotiating transculturation and sociopolitical transformation and show that the latter approach proved more successful in the long term because it allowed a more organic unification of religious and political factions

Ancient history · Ethnology · Indigenous · Millenarianism · Monarchy · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Sovereignty · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Law · Philosophy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Religious studies · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Ecology

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