Meitei

Meitei, also called Manipuri, is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Imphal valley in Manipur on the India–Burma border, where it serves as the region's lingua franca; the standard form is the Imphal dialect. With a written tradition stretching back some two thousand years, it is one of the few old literary languages of Tibeto-Burman.

Early works include the ritual coronation song Ougri, possibly older than the Common Era, and the first-century epic Numit Kappa, while King Loiyumba's legal code Loyumba Shinyen was finalized in 1100.

Its own Meitei Mayek alphabet, first attested on sixth-century coins, was used until the Hinduizing king Pamheiba replaced it with the Bengali-Assamese script in the early eighteenth century and fostered Vaishnavite literature such as the Parikshit of 1725. The language remains the sacred liturgical tongue of the indigenous Sanamahi religion.