Khamba Thoibi Jagoi

Understand

Where Khamba Thoibi Jagoi comes from

Khamba Thoibi Jagoi is the classical Meitei dance-drama of Manipur, drawn from the ancient legend of Khamba and Thoibi (the love story of a Moirang warrior and a Moirang maiden, often called the 'national romantic legend of Manipur' by the Indian scholar Suniti Kumar Chatterjee). The legend has its origin in the 11th-12th century and is retold in the eight-volume epic poem Khamba Thoibi Sheireng (the Meitei-language epic composed by Hijam Angangha in 1940). The dance-drama is performed at the Khong Kangjei (the Meitei ball game) festival and at the Lai Haraoba of the Moirang shrine. The dance is performed by the Maiba and Maibi of the Moirang community and forms part of the broader Meitei classical tradition.

How it's practiced

Khamba Thoibi Jagoi is performed by the Maiba and Maibi of the Moirang community at the Khong Kangjei festival (the central Moirang ball-game) and at the Lai Haraoba of the Moirang shrine. The dance is a combination of the Moirang martial art (the sword and the shield), the epic-dance (the choreography of the legend) and the gentle men's and women's dance. The dance is performed in the central courtyard of the shrine, with the male and female dancers enacting the legend of Khamba and Thoibi in coordinated sequences. Music is the pung, the pena (the string instrument) and the regional dhol. Costume is the Moirang traditional dress — the men's dhoti and turban and the women's traditional regional weave. Performances are at the shrine of Moirang and at the cultural programmes of the state.