Jodhpur, Oct 24 Manipuri artiste Mangka Mayanglambam was moved by the loss of human life during Covid-19 to write one of her first compositions, “Apocalypse: The Call of Mother Nature”, only to leave it unfinished for another four years, until the people of her state took up arms against each other in 2023.
Placed midway through her otherwise folklore-driven performance at Jodhpur RIFF here on Friday, the composition is Mangka’s response as an artiste to the two humanitarian crises, combined with the textured soulfulness of the traditional, single-stringed instrument pena.
“It felt like human civilisation had come to an end during Covid-19 and mother nature was taking revenge on us for our behaviour. I could not write more than two paras. Then in 2023, so many innocent lives were lost, even small babies were murdered,” Mangka told PTI.
Manipur has been in the grip of an ethnic conflict between the valley-based Meitei and the hill-based Kuki communities since May 2023. The conflict has claimed at least 306 lives, while several people remain missing. Three Meitei men were killed in an ambush on October 19.
Clashes between Kukis and Nagas in the state have also claimed around 50 lives since February this year.
The second half of her small, four-paragraph composition spoke of the end of human civilisation at the hands of people who have no love for each other.
“The last two paragraphs said that because of the hatred we have for each other, humanity has lost. There’s no love between us. There’s no harmony. It is in a metaphor: the birds are mocking us. The trees are dancing. The rivers, the lakes feel that humans are going to end,” the 30-year-old said.
In the last over four years, she added, everything has changed not only for common people but artistes as well.
“The songs, the stories, everything has changed. Even when I am telling a story of love, peace and harmony, it takes me back to that year and it all turns black
“I may be dressed up well, putting on make-up and costumes, but deep inside, whenever I sing the songs of Manipur, it gives me that pain that cannot be explained in words,” she said.
Mangka is one of the last remaining players of the Meitei folk instrument pena — a single-stringed lute that was once a celebrated instrument at royal courts of Manipur and was usually played only by men.
Her nearly two-hour-long performance included a range of compositions that have been handed down to artistes over centuries. It opened with a prayer about the creation of the universe and the role of humans in it.
The pena virtuoso went on to render, in her mellifluous voice, tales of the cotton flower through the love story of goddess Tampha, the love story of Khamba and Thoibi – the “Manipuri Romeo and Juliet”, about the Khongjom war of 1891 between Manipuri people and the British, and a merrymaking song “Lai Haraoba”.
Despite some triumphant and cheerful notes, Mangka’s compositions largely centred around the ongoing crisis in her state, which has left artists jobless and people without hope.
“Music is my weapon, my power. It is the only thing that I can share with the world and say that Manipur used to be a peaceful, calm, and beautiful place. Every song I perform, every story I narrate, it reflects in a different way,” she said.
She added that because of the conflict in Manipur, there’s hardly any work opportunities for the artist communities, forcing them to take up odd jobs while facing criticism from the public for not being part of the struggle.
“It’s the only source of income for an artist. And about 90 per cent of the artists perform only in Manipur. Just imagine a place where there are no functions, no celebration, no festivals for three years. Only protests. So, since 2023, the only music, the only melodies we have heard are sounds of the crying mothers,” she said, as her voice broke.
She added that people started lashing artistes to come out and protest.
“Of course, we did it in a different way. But we are also powerless. We are doing a service as an artist. We are doing something for our community, for our society. The stage is our platform, and we have to raise our voice,” she added.
Her service to her society includes teaching more than 300 students every weekend, mostly young girls, the art of playing the pena, and visiting different relief camps across the state to interact with people and sing with them.
“The biggest reason I didn’t give up was because of them. Because music has become a healing process for so many people during the crisis. So I use my music as my power, as my weapon to help them heal a little even for a moment. And I also wish that most of the artists could do that back at their hometown. But it’s very unfortunate that so many of them had to give up,” she said.
Jodhpur RIFF music festival, organised by the Mehrangarh Music Trust, is hosting its “wildest and widest” guest lists yet with new and returning roots musicians from six continents and about a dozen countries playing along the centuries old music of Rajasthan and India’s traditional folk artistes.
Apart from more than 250 folk musicians from Rajasthan, and other Indian states, the festival will host legendary roots musicians for the first time such as Filipino-Murrawari rapper Dobby, Latin American duo Camila y Silvio, UK’s Uilleann pipe player Michael McGoldrick, and American folk and blues singer Martha Redbone.
(PTI News)
