Construction of Ideal Woman in old Manipuri Literature: An Analysis of the Manuscript Bhakta Charit by Ningthoujamba Madhava

Abstract

There is a paradigm shift in the mode of deployment of women’s sexuality in Meitei society after the coming of Vaishnavite Hinduism. The Brahmanical ethos merged with the ancient female archetypes in Meitei society to create the ideal of present-day Meitei Women. To understand this better this paper attempts to analyse the manuscript written by Ningthoujamba Madhava as reproduced in Ningthoukhongam Khelchandra’s book Ariba Manipuri Sahityagi Itihas (A History of Old Manipuri Literature) to understand the discourse surrounding the ideal womanhood as informed by the Hinduism. This writing was reproduced in Ariba Manipuri Itihas (A History of Old Manipuri Literature) by late Pandit N. Khelchandra Singh (Ningthoukhongjam, 1969). The most significant feature of Bhakta Charit was that of providing or elaborating the fundamental qualities of the ideal Vaishnavite Hindu women. Here Madhav elaborated on what an ideal woman should not be, and on the dos and don’ts in the conduct of the human being. He was very particular on the rules of behavior and morals concerning women. He was in particularly concerned about the type of women whom one should marry especially in terms of her physical features. One remarkable feature of the above passages is that Madhava compared women with different kinds of animals.