Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Sept 6, 2019 21:08:35 GMT 5.5
This piece is a reproduction of the what I published on our
Manipuri Dictionary Project blog earlier this year.
Manipuri Dictionary Project blog earlier this year.
This post is written in the present tense descriptive form. The physical geography of a Meitei household is no more the way it is described here. The present tense is just for the descriptive purpose.
A traditional Meitei house (yumjao, literally big house) faces the east, and the westernmost or innermost part has the chakshang (kitchen). The kitchen is separated from the main body of the house by a wall with a door usually without the door pane or board. The main body of the house, though separated into sections such as mamang ka (front room), mayai ka (middle room) and maning ka (back room, also known as Sanamahi ka or Sanamahi room), is actually one big hall without partitioning walls. Each room is marked from the other by a structure or a mat (called nak-khal) with a stand or attached to the wall. This mat is not much higher than an average man’s height and does not reach the middle (lamyai) of the long house. The middle of house from the front door through the door to the serves as the passage in the house.
The chakshang has another door that serves as the back door, and it opens south usually to the lukhak kom, a pit to dispose of household wastes (especially lukhak, crumbs, leftover and other kitchen wastes) into. Lukhak means the remaining part (khak) of served food, especially rice (luk).
Yenakha is the space on either side of the house. All place or area around your house including the lukhak khom but without the area in front of and behind the house is called yenakha lukha. Lukha here is a back formation of lukhak kom (with lukhak being a compound of luk meaning food as in luk haba and luk loukhatpa and khakpa meaning save or saved). When you search for something in the yenakha lukha, you search the sides of your house thoroughly, even without leaving the lukhak kom. If you say the kids in your neighborhood run around your yenakha lukkha, you are annoyed that the kinds a noisy and they turn everything upside down around your house, even the garbage pit, with a little bit of exaggeration.