• Dr Ng. Mataisang

ABSTRACT The term ‘ Naga’ is a generic name whose actual meaning is not known beyond hypothetical interpretations put forward by various authors and researchers. It is the Britishers who gave the knowledge of the common Naga entity and collective notion of Naga community. There are twenty (20) different Naga tribes in Manipur. Ethnically, they are Mongoloids and linguistically belong to the Tibeto-Burman family. Though they do not have written record of their past history, yet they have rich oral traditions handed down from generation to generation. One of their traditions says that they came out of a cave/ earth hole and took settlement over the surface of earth. The Nagas has their own religion before the advent of Christianity to Manipur during the British rule in India. They were a religious and god fearing people. Their religion is a mixture of animism and theism. The main characteristics of their religion are animism, theism, naturalism, polytheism, totemism , taboo, myth, social custom, belief in dream and omen and stone worship. They had their own concept of God, concept of soul, concept of life after death and concept of sin. The Nagas had two types of religious practitioners or functionaries, who performed the vital role in the religious ceremonies and functions of both for the community and individuals. They were the priest and the shamans. The Nagas did not have any house of prayer or worship like the church of the Christian and the temple of the Hindu. But their altars were the main place of their worship where offering were made. Offering, Prayer, rituals and genna were the main mode of the Naga traditional religious worship. The term ‘genna’ which can be best explained as ‘ban’ or ‘prohibition’ was the most important form of worship of the Nagas In the past, the religious life of the Nagas was governed by belief in omens and dreams. They never venture any important task without good omen or dreams, e.g., a matrimonial engagement would not be settled or a marriage would not be contracted, a war would not be waged without positive/ good omen/ dream. Thus, in the past a Naga must consult omen or dream first before he undertook his plan and if the omen was not good, his ventured would be suspended until favourable omen or dream is found.

Key Words: Animism, genna, myth, polytheism, taboo and totemism.

"The Traditional Religious Life of the Naga Tribes of Manipur", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.105-110, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907917.pdf

"The Traditional Religious Life of the Naga Tribes of Manipur", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp105-110, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907917.pdf