OugriMeiteilon
An invocatory song of origins sung at the start of the ritual sequence, in an archaic register that ordinary modern Meiteilon does not fully cover.
Sung at: Lai Haraoba, and formerly at the opening of court ceremony.
Imphal Valley · Northeast Hill Massif
Folk songs
KhenchoMeiteilon
A concluding ritual song of the festival cycle, sung with the pena and with fixed responses.
Sung at: Lai Haraoba.
Khamba-Thoibi SheirengMeiteilon
The Moirang epic of the poor youth Khamba and the princess Thoibi. Hijam Anganghal's twentieth-century verse recension runs to tens of thousands of lines and is the longest single work in the language.
Sung at: Narrated over several nights.
Khongjom ParvaMeiteilon
The battle of Khongjom of 1891, sung to dholak by a standing solo performer. The form was created to carry this one story and then became a genre.
Sung at: Public performance, memorial days.
Thabal Chongba songsMeiteilon
Courtship and teasing, sung and now more often played, while a circle of young people dances by moonlight.
Sung at: The five nights of Yaoshang.
Khunung EsheiMeiteilon
Village songs — transplanting, fishing, weaving and lullabies. The layer beneath both the temple and the court repertoires, and the one least written down.
Sung at: Work, boating, child-minding.
Nata Sankirtana palaMeiteilon and Brajabuli
Krishna devotion sung in a fixed sequence by a standing ensemble with pung and cymbals. Brajabuli, the literary Vaishnav idiom, sits inside a Meiteilon performance — the clearest audible trace of the eighteenth-century religious shift.
Sung at: Births, marriages, funerals and temple festivals.
The folk songs of Imphal Valley — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)