Manipura (Mahabharata)

Not to be confused with Manipuri Mahabharata, the Manipuri language adaptation of the Mahabharata.
A folio from Razmnama depicting the battle between Babruvahana and Arjuna

Manipura (Sanskrit: मणिपुर, romanized: maṇipura, lit. 'city of jewels'), also known as Manalura,[1][2] is a kingdom mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. According to the epic, it was located near a sea-shore, the Mahendra Mountains (present day Eastern Ghats) and the Kalinga Kingdom (present day Odisha).[3][4][5][6] Arjuna—one of the five Pandava brothers—visited Manipura and married Chitrangada, the princess of the kingdom. They had a son named Babruvahana who later ruled it.[1]

Manipur shares its name with a modern-day state of India, located in the North-Eastern part of the country. Some past rulers of the state had claimed themselves to be the descendants of Arjuna.[7] While some scholars support the identification of the state with the kingdom, others oppose this idea and based on the geographical description given in the epic, they state that Manipura kingdom was in present-day Odisha or Andhra Pradesh.[8]

  1. ^ a b Mani 1975.
  2. ^ Debroy, Bibek. The Mahabharata (Version 2). p. 886.
  3. ^ "Manipura - AncientVoice". ancientvoice.wikidot.com. Retrieved 2022-11-09.
  4. ^ "Definition of maṇipūra - Sanskritdictionary.com". Sanskritdictionary.com.
  5. ^ Valmiki; Vyasa (2018-05-19). Delphi Collected Sanskrit Epics (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. p. 2627. ISBN 978-1-78656-128-2.
  6. ^ Vyasa, Krishna-Dwaipayana. THE MAHABHARATHA. Victoria Institutions. p. 357.
  7. ^ Roy 1973.
  8. ^ Devi 2002.