Puya Meithaba (Burning of the puya), or Lairik Meithaba, refers to the annual commemoration of a legendary 18th-century scripture burning in post-colonial Manipur, or to the original libricide of Puya itself. There is no historical evidence that the libricide was planned, much less that it did happen. Nonetheless, the commemoration, organised by the Meitei National Front and others since 1979, has been a critical tool in the spread of Meitei nationalism and has mainstreamed a particular reconstruction of premodern Manipur, which has come to be uncritically reproduced even in academic publications.
Historical Background
The Meiteis — including the royal house — traditionally followed an indigenous cult of worship that revered nature, ancestors, and fertility gods and goddesses, called lais. Situated far outside Aryavarta, the region was immune from Vedic and Hindu influences; until at least the sixteenth century, the royal culture did not bear any signs of Hindu influence. In 1704, Charairongba, the incumbent King became the first royal figure to be initiated into Vaishnavism — coins inscribing "Sri Krishna" were minted in the aftermath and Hindu temples constructed for the first time but there is no evidence that much changed in the public sphere. His son Pamheiba ascended to the throne five years later and initially shew no inclination towards Vaishnavism, providing selective patronage to shrines for lais and even followed Meitei funerary rituals on Charairongba's death. However, in 1715, he adopted the Sakta tradition under one Bengali Brahmin and two years later, followed his father into being initiated as a Gaudiya Vaishnava; nonetheless, while Hindu temples were increasingly commissioned, patronage of Meitei sites continued as before.
C. 1720, Santa Das Goswami, a missionary from Sylhet arrived in his court; he preached Ramanandi Vaishnavism, upholding it as the most appropriate sect for warriors. That Pamheiba had to face an increasingly recalcitrant Cachar and Tripura — even discounting Burma, their traditional enemy —, the martial ethos of the sect fitted to Pamheiba's expansionist ambitions and perhaps, the common religious denomination afforded him more grounds to wage war on the cultural front; he converted in 1728 and, in the words of Rodney Sebastian, reframed the very concepts of kingship and the sovereign from within the religio-political authority of Ramanandi Vaishnavism, going on to adopt the title of "Maharaja" and identifying the region as the "Manipur" of Indian epical literature. Pamheiba also tried to unify the masses under a single religio-cultural authority, extensively Hindu-ising the cultural milieu in the process — mass-conversion rites were frequently held, translation of Puranas and Ramayana were commissioned, Hindu cultural norms like prohibition on beef were legalized, and Meitei festivals were hybridized with Hindu ones while lai shrines were destroyed, images of Meitei deities dismantled and recast into coins, and worship of some lais consigned only to the Brahmins.
Contemporary Narrative
In contemporary Meitei culture, which bears a deep ambivalence towards mainland India (and Hindu ethos), Pamheiba's reign serves as a moment of rupture in their transcendental history. He is alleged to have violently suppressed Sanamahism, the local religion as referred to today, and imposed Vaishnavism on his subjects via oppressive means. In furtherance, many local scholars — though not all — hold that Puyas — the ancient traditional texts of Meiteis — were destroyed at his orders with an aim of purging the traditional episteme; this narrative of libricide has gained immense popularity among Meiteis, notwithstanding the presence of hundreds of extant Puyas.
The precise date of the event is disputed. The details vary with authors and are often legendary in nature, that they need to explain the sheer number of extant Puyas — some mention that they were scheduled to be incinerated but flew away from the fire, another version mentions that they were indeed burnt but copies were already made of them in secret, yet another mentions that they were successfully transported out of the valley, yet another that the puyas were written in water-resistant ink and preserved underwater! A few scholars have even produced lists of the burnt Puyas. It has also been propounded that the usage of Bengali script in place of Meitei Mayek began after this purge.