The Life Cycle Rituals of The Meitei Hindu

Abstract

The lifecycle rituals practiced by the Meitei Hindus form an amalgam of Hindu practices and Meitei customs, showing cultural and spiritual flexibility. This analysis focuses on major life-cycle events: birth, initiation, marriage, and death, exploring distinctive practices, their meanings, and place in society. The rituals surrounding birth gives utmost significance to family and lineage through protective cleansing rites such as charting the birth and performing a ritualized wash. Important milestones in childhood such as Chakumba (first feeding of rice) and Nahutpa (Chudakarana with Karnavedha) are combined into one infused with purification and spiritual ascendance. Marriage is designated as a household event while also encompassing social relations. Death rituals show the blend of local custom and Hinduism where cremation of the body replaces burial. Symbolism within these activities includes entombing the spirit with objects to enable the spirit’s travel to the afterlife or using logs decked with additional symbolical firewood layered to reflect connection with living ancestors. Special homage for sanyasis. babies, and women in childbirth exhibits the flexibility and open nature of these practices. The Meitei Hindu rituals may be transformed by modern society, but fundamentally, are always preserved.