On 22nd June “And That is Why,” by L. Somi Roy, was launched by HH Leisemba Sanajaoba, Manipur’s titular king. He is also the Member of Parliament at the Rajya Sabha, at the Sana Konung Palace, Imphal.
After L. Somi Roy finished writing his book, ‘And That is Why’, he sent the draft of his book to three people named Jessica, Tara, and Theia. “ Kid? Fortunately, they liked his book and Roy heaved a sigh of relief.
The 97-page book brings back Manipur’s mythological traditions using childlike form prose- with subjects ranging from worldly to ones that are closer home. Manipur has little known and highly evolved manuscripts which are called ‘puya’. The dissertations based on ‘puya’ and translations do exist today, while the old manuscript is held by scholar custodians or archives.
“There were manuscripts before that too but those had shorter entries. Post fourteenth century, the record-keeping became more contemporaneous, with longer richer entries and treatises on a variety of subjects,” says Roy.
