Meitei

The Meitei are the Tibeto-Burman people of the Imphal valley in Kangleipak, later called Manipur. Growing from the Ningthouja clan that absorbed the other Yek Salai clans, they acquired a written order: King Naophangba drafted a proto-constitution in 429, and King Loiyumba promulgated the Loyumba Shinyen code in 1100.

In 1337 their kingdom was the settled power of the Imphal plain, warring with surrounding hill tribes. King Ningthoukhompa routed the Moirang between 1432 and 1467, and under Kiyamba, who ruled until 1508, Brahmins arrived and Vaishnavism took root.

King Pamheiba, who reigned from 1709 to 1748, renamed Kangleipak as Manipur, forced the Meitei into Hinduism and burned their scriptures in 1729, remembered as Puya Meithaba. Burmese wars followed: Alaungpaya deported Meitei horsemen in 1758 and 1759, and the occupation of 1819 to 1826 became known as the Seven Years Devastation.