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Front Page >> Manipur  > Story

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PENA, The Dying Indigenous Musical Instrument
By Sobhapati Samom
Nestling deep within a lush green corner of north east India is the wondrously beautiful land called Manipur, in other words "a jeweled land". This little corner is a veritable paradise on earth. The people and the tribes of Manipur include the majority Meiteis, Nagas and Chin-Kuki-Mizos and other communities. These are the people whose folklore, myths and legends, dances, indigenous games and martial arts, exotic handlooms and handicrafts are invested with the mystique of nature and an indefatigable joie de vivre. In fact wonders are never ending -the place is Manipur.

As the state lies between 23.80 degree north and 25.68 degree north latitude and 93.03 degree East and 94.78 degree longitude, the geographical location and climate have great influence on the living conditions and habits of the people in general. As a result Manipur presents a mosaic of traditions and cultural patterns. The Manipuri classical dance is world famous and it very distinct from other Indian dance forms.

The popular khamba-thoibi dance, a duet of a male and a female partner which is a depiction of the dance performed by Khamba and Thoibi, the hero and heroin of a folk epic of the Manipuris, was a dance dedicated to the sylvan deity. Besides the 'maibi' dance (priestess dance) the 'leima' dance and 'lai-haraoba dance' (dance in god's festival), both dances are the fountainhead of the modern Manipuri dance forms. All of these religious and traditional forms of dances go along with the sequence of PENA recitals all the time.

PENA, a dying indigenous musical instrument of this cultured people of Manipur, was played once upon a time as royal court music. In short it is the 'guitar' as in western world and a “sitar" in Indian style. PENA is made up of two parts viz the penamasa (body portion) and Pena cheijing (the fiddle bow). Earlier the PENA was usually played to evoke the gods and goddesses.

Later it was played by eminent musicians as royal court music and today it is played in musical concerts or similar occasions. However, in some of the historic places of Manipur, it is played even in marriage ceremony or shradh (funeral services).

To Manipuris, according to CHEITHAROL KUMBABA, a royal chronicle of Manipur, Pena music is old and traditional, coming down from God and enjoys a "high antiquity". "It was not exactly known when it originated. It is a stringed musical instrument with an origin of hoary past" says Makhonmani Mongshaba, a national awardee in films and who is now conducting research on the Pena.

This highly stylized form of music has sublimity, subtly and grace. The richness of costumes also gives luster to the beauty of this art when it was a popular royal court music during the King's period. Apart from its role in the royal court, it is also widely used during the King's long distance trips on specific occasions. “Pena players are like the modern days stereophonic car tapes during the ancient times" Makhonmani observed.

Decades ago, the popularity of PENA was high. Most of the elders in the Manipuri society witnessed in group whenever there are Pena recitals in the courtyards. Even today they listen to regular programs on Pena on All India Radio as it had acquired a prominent place in the indigenous religions as well as the secular music. In other words Pena recitals are an entertaining musical narration of the ancient king's activities and its legendary episodes. The theme of performing Pena recitals later includes legendary romantic themes. It is popular for its thematic and romantic contents of legendary stories in Manipur while narrating the stories.

But popularity of such a rare musical instrument has been on the decline day by day due to lack of proper support from the state authorities in this modern Manipuri society. It is very disheartening to know the poor lifestyles of the Pena musicians in Manipur today. According to reasearchers, there are only 145 Pena musicians in Manipur although it had more numbers in the past.

So far the state authority is not willing to establish a Pena institute for its own survival in this contemporary Manipuri society.

In view of the development, the Epanat-Epunat-Thijinba-Kanglup,a voluntary organization born and brought up for the preservance of indigenous cultural activities of the Manipuris, popularly known as Epathoukok in Manipur organized an eight day "Pena festival” from December 15 to 22 this year under the sponsorship of North-East Zone Cultural Center, Dimapur and the Directorate of Arts and Culture, Government of Manipur. Besides they also organized a day long seminar on Pena to preserve Pena as a royal court music in Manipur.

More than 16 eminent Pena musicians including the Tangkhul Naga musicians living across the state took part in the festival. The meet of the EPATHOUKOK also decided to urge the concerned authority to revive the status of Pena in Manipur.

*** The writer is based in Imphal and is a reporter with the North-East Sun and the Assam Tribune

 

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