The Manipuri Annal, Panthoibi Khong-gul focuses on the story of Panthoibi (Arunkumar
& Arun), daughter of the Kanglei King (Thoiba,
2008). She was depicted as in love with Nongpok Ningthou (Arunkumar
& Arun). But because of close ties between Kanglei
and Chenglei kingdom, the Kanglei King was keen on marrying her daughter off to
the son of the Chenglei King (Thoiba, 2008). Her parents, however, did not approve of her maiden love
and gave her away in betrothal to Khaba. Even after her marriage to Khaba, Panthoibi
met Nongpok. Naturally, her in-laws and their other kinsman would not approve
of her escapades and illicit relationship (Arunkumar & Arun).
One day, on a pleasing full moon night, king’s queen, Panthoibi ran away to
elope with the Nongpok Ningthou at a particular place as ploy before. Khaba and his kin-group took it as an insult and a
slur to their pride. So, they hunted out the couple everywhere, but failed to
catch up with them (Arunkumar & Arun). Meanwhile, she hid at a
nearby shrub bushes and thus escaped. At that instance, she inadvertently chewed one leaf of
the plant which was bitter in taste, so she named the plant as nongmangkha,
nong= one day, mang = bushy and kha = bitter, the present phologacanthus
thysiformis. There is widespread belief, in Kangleipak, which is still practiced about this
plant, that, local people, never plucked, any part of the plant on sunday and
any days on precise noon time. There is an old saying that on this restricted day or time
period, devil sits on the plant, if someone happens to pluck the plant or used
it for any purpose, it might cause evil effect on the human health (Deshworjit and Potsangbam, 2014).
Photo source: http://www.epaolive.net/galleries/images/Handicrafts/2009/RichardFlora01/Flowers_Richard_2009_3.JPG
No comments:
Post a Comment