Meitei Yek Salai System and Genetic Science

The Yek Salai system is the classification or identification of various Meitei Clan families in ancient times. The Salai system started during the Pakhangba period. It is believed that the Salai started to consolidate from the early B.C. The present day Salai classification still follows the early core rules of 7 Salai .All the Meitei communities are said to be descendants of these 7 Salai.We can trace a person with his most ancient or root ancestor in an unbroken lineage.

Example :-Let’s say a person who is belongs to the “Laishram” then it means that he traces back his male ancestry to the ancient “khuman”. So yek Salai refers to the Root Person in a person’s male lineage. A Salai is the lineage clan assigned to a Meitei birth.The Identities lineage clan of Meitei male is consider themselves to be the descendants of the 7 great Salai . Below details explain a short history of Meitei ,Yek Salai and rule practiced by different sections of the Meitei Society.

Before the influence of Hinduism , from the early period up to 1435 A.D. the structure of the salais or the principal that rules the principalities of Manipur.

1. Wangam/Poirei/Meitei/Ningthouja

2. Nungban/Luwang

3. Nongban/Selloi-Langmai/Angom

4. Nongyai/Khuman

5. Ewang/Moirang

6. Thangyi/Chenglei/Sharang-Leishangthem

7. Khaba-Nganba

In course of time it turn into ten principalities than again were merged into one group, ‘Meitei’.

1. NINGTHOUJAA (MANGANG)

2.  ANGOM

3. LUWAANG

4.  KHUMAN

5. KHAA-NGAANBA

6. MOIRAANG

7. CHENGLEI –(SARANG LEISANGTHEM)

8. Haorok-Konthou

9. Phantek

10.Heirem-Khunja

After forming the Meitei , A few years later it again Merge into 7 principalities of Meitei Yek Salai.

1. NINGTHOUJAA (MANGANG)

2.  ANGOM

3. LUWAANG

4.  KHUMAN

5. KHAA-NGAANBA

6. MOIRAANG

7. CHENGLEI –(SARANG LEISANGTHEM)

All  Meitei’s yek evolved from one of the above salai. It is believe that all the yumnak are descendants of the above Salais . The total number of established Yumnak today is 1000s plus. However each of them can trace back to one of the root Yek Salai. The word yek Salai is formed from the two ancient words , “yek”  is derived from the word “yekpa”  Paint ,  and it  is associated with  seven different colour  of clothes  worn by each yek  and the word “Salai” is derived from Sandokpa  (Expansion of population) . Yek Salai referring to the system of maintaining individual male lineages seems more appropriate.

Some of the strict rules obeyed by Meitei people for Marries alliance before hindunization are taken into account. Still the rules are followed by the people though the grip of cord of the rules is not as stronger as before.The rules of avoidance of marries alliance of the people are considered under the headings:

1. Yek Tinnaba

2. Sairuk/Sairup (Salai Lup) Tinnaba

3. Pee Tinnaba

4. Pen Tinnaba

5. Leinung Pen Tinnaba

6. Mungnaba

7. Ee-Omnaba

8. Ngaknaba

1. YEK TINNABA

According to the rule of Yek Salai system. A Bride and a Bridegroom belonging to the same Yek are considered to be siblings and it is strictly prohibited for them to marry even if they belong to distant families. They are believe to be descendants who are transcending from the same common ancestor  known as Yek Tinnaba descendants who are in the same phurups, shagei and yumnaks. it will be like a brother marrying a sister which is known to cause genetic disorders in their offspring. probably the prevention of marriages within the same yek . 

2. SAIRUK/SAIRUP (SALAI LUP) TINNABA

People who is believe to be descendants from a common ancestor who have been separated into different phurup by merging into different yeks are known as sairuk/sairup tinnaba meaning ‘united through (the fold of) sairup. Sairup tinnaba is of two types, viz.,  sairuk

achouba and sairuk macha.

Sairuk achouba :-Descendants of children of the parents born to different mothers of a single father are classified under sairuk achouba. The different mothers, one’s own and step mothers may or may not have same yek, shagei, yumnak or phunga. Descendants who are fall under such a sairuk achouba are prohibited for marries alliance. This is so prohibited so as to check the hereditary line coming from a single ‘pater’. Genetically, the high probability of surfacing homozygous lethal genes if married among such descendants thereby causing harmful effects to the offspring.

Sairup macha tinnaba:- Descendants who have been descended through mother’s line. This is known as ‘pee’ tinnaba and ‘pen tinnaba.

The four shairuk tinnaba groups which are prohibited for marries alliances among

the Meiteis are, viz., moirang anouba and angom yek, khuman and luwang, khaba-nganba and chenglei yek, and moirang ariba and nganba yek.

3.PEE TINNABA AND PEN TINNABA

Pee:– is derived from ‘mapee’ meaning ‘mother’ and pee tinnaba (Descendants having same Mother)

pen:- is derived from ‘mapen/maben’ (grandmother).  pen tinnaba( Descendants having same grandmother) .  Children born to ego’s father’s sister’s children and ego’s father’s brother’s children are pee or pen tinnaba groups. Marries from ego’s generation are not allowed up to the third generation. It can be said that if one examines minutely, pee tinnaba and pen tinnaba are forms of shairuk tinnaba.

4. LEINUNG PEN TINNABA

The descendants descending from the distant mapen (grandmother) but not from the

direct mapen are called leinung pen tinnaba group. A woman if married to a man of a

yek/sagei/yumnak or different yumnaks of the same yek or different yumnak/sagei of a

different yek, then her son’s descendants are leinung pen tinnaba group. For instance, in history,Pureiromba Angou’s sister, Pureilemnusu first married to a man and she gave birth to Khamchingkon Haiheiba  Pureilmnusu again remarried to Khaba Yupuroi of Khaba phurup and she gave birth to Krumkoiba. Khamchingkon and his descendants became nganba yek shalai and Krumkoiba’s descendants became khaba yek shalai.Therefore, nganba and khaba are in the fold of leinung pen tinnaba

5. MUNGNABA

Mungnaba means something which cannot be done and if breach bad consequences are

bound to be happened. Of the various forms of mungnaba, Ee-mungnaba (Ee means blood) is considered as the most important one. Two sibling sisters after marrying to two respective men who are in the same or different yek, shagei and yumnak and the children born to such sisters even though their husbands belong to different yek, yumnak and shagei are in the mungnaba fold and hence their descendants starting counting from the two sisters’ generation cannot be marry up to fifth generations. The descendants can marry from the sixth generation. On the one hand, the rule of marries alliances between

descendants who are a little farther away in kinship bond have permission of less number of

generation for marriage. For instance, children born to cousin sisters of two sibling brothers

having same parents or of step brothers (having common mother but different fathers) are fall under the ee-mungnaba group. The descendants of the two cousin sisters are not allowed to marry up to third generation counting from them i.e. the two cousin sisters. The descendants can marry from the fourth generations (Sambandha Niranoy, Ms). However, the general rules of marriage cannot be ignored (for instance, if the descendants are in the same yek, they are not allowed to marry).

6. EE-OMNABA

There are few yumnaks descending from pee tinnaba and pen tinnaba groups. These

yumnaks though fall beyond the restricted generations of marriage are considered not to allow Marries alliances. Such following of keeping exogamous relationship is known as eeomnaba.

7. NGAKNABA

Two yumnaks who are not related through kinship, though can marry, do not marry by

keeping words by considering themselves as having near kinship ties. For instance, teknonymous relationship maintains ngaknaba relationship.

THE BASIC IDEA ABSTRACT  FROM THE ABOVE RULE TO NORMAL UNDERSTANDING

WHY THE YEK OF A SON IS IMPORTANT IN YEK SALAI SYSTEM

This Yek Salai system helps one identify his male lineage and is passed down automatically from Father to Son. But the Yek does not get automatically passed down from Father to Daughter. Suppose a person with Luwang has a Son. Now suppose the Son gets married to a girl whose father belongs to Khuman. The Salai of the girl automatically is said to become Luwang after her marriage even though her father belonged to Khuman Salai.So the rule of the Yek Salai system is that the yumnak of men remains the same, while the Yumnak of the woman becomes the Yumnak of their husband after marriage. Now suppose a person has only daughters and no sons. In that case his Yumnak will end with him in that lineage because his daughters will belong to the Yumnak of their husbands after their marriage!This was probably the reason why in the ancient Meitei societies it was preferred to have atleast one Son along with any number of daughters, so that the Blood line of the father could continue. Why should only Sons carry the Yumnak of their father, why can’t daughters? How does the Yumnak of a daughter change just because she marries a person belonging to a different Yumnak? What is the necessity of maintaining only the man’s ancestry; why not maintain that of women too? This was the question that was puzzling me about this Yek salai system till recently, until I found out the scientific reasoning behind the Yek salai system you will find an answer in end of the page!

YUMNAK AND THE YEK SALAI

       Yumnak is a list of most excellent yek in a Salai lineage. As we saw earlier, some of the descendants of the most ancient yumnak started their own Salai, however they maintained a list of Yumnak while doing so and attached the list of their most excellent Ancestors with this derived Salai. For instance the KHUMAN has AHONGBAM, HAOBAM, HEIKRUJAM, LAISHRAM as their yek. What this means is that yek has in its lineage all these yumnak and traces back its root to Khuman in the list of Khuman yek salaiThe idea behind this Yek system is probably to ensure that the derived Salai still maintain track of their root Salai, and this in turn is used to ensure that Bride and Bridegroom from no two derived Yek Salai coming from the same root yumnak marry each other. Every yumnak which is a derived salai maintains a list of Yek salai attached to it.This is because, the essence of the yek salai system is finally to prevent marriages within the same yek . Now consider two derived yumnak which came from the same Salai, then it might happen that over time people might forget that both these yumnak came from the same root salai, and may allow marriages within these salai since their names are different! To prevent this, the derived Yek Salai maintained a list of Yek (which were the prominent junctions where the derived Salai got created), and the additional rule in the Yek Salai system is that, even if the Bride and Bridegroom belong to different salai, they still cannot get married even if just one of their Yek matches.This makes sense as this prevents marriages between derived Yek which belong to the same root Salai.

RULE OF BROTHER YEK AND SISTER YEK

         These are the simple general rule .The Descendants of a brother and sister can intermarry when the blood has been changed 3 times. The sister must marry out of her salai, and if she has daughter that will be one change, that daughter must marry out of her salai and if she has a daughter that is a second change and that daughter marries out of the salai and has a daughter, thus the blood has been changed 3 times and the children of the last marriage may intermarry with the descendants of the brother in the same generation . if at any stage in the female line there is a son instead of daughter, no change of blood occurs, because the son will be of the same Salai as his father

Example:- A= Angom , N= Ningthouja  , C= Chinglei  , K= Khuman  , Ba= Male  , Bi =  

Female

DESCENDANT OF TWO FAMILY (EPA YEK AND EMA YEK

Where two families are descended from Brother and sister and the changes of blood have not occurred as above , then male of the line descended from the brother may not marry with a girl of the sister’s line till the 7th generations but a boy of the sister’s line may marry with a girl of the brother’s line in the 5th generation.In each case the brother and sister are counted as the 1st generation. in the fisrst instance the law is Epa Yek and the second Ema Yek, which also govern the case of two families descended from two sisters.

THE RULE OF THREE SIBLING DESCENDANT

A has three children, one son and two daughters. One of the daughters married N.Her descendants may not intermarry with those of her brother until the 5th and with those of her sister until the 4th generation.This C.ba/C.bi and Y.ba/Y.bi may intermarry but not A.ba/Abi ,C.ba/C.bi and Y.ba/Y.bi and at the last 5 generation x,y and z can intermarry

CHROMOSOMES AND GENES

Humans have 23 pairs of Chromosomes and in each pair one Chromosome comes from the father and the other comes from the mother. So in all we have 46 Chromosomes in every cell, of which 23 come from the mother and 23 from the father.Of these 23 pairs, there is one pair called the Sex Chromosomes which decide the gender of the person. During conception, if the resultant cell has XX sex chromosomes then the child will be a girl and if it is XY then the child will be a boy. X chromosome decides the female attributes of a person and Y Chromosome decides the male attributes of a person.When the initial embryonic cell has XY chromosome, the female attributes get suppressed by the genes in the Y Chromosome and the embryo develops into a male child. Since only men have Y Chromosomes, son always gets his Y Chromosome from his father and the X Chromosome from his mother. On the other hand daughters always get their X Chromosomes, one each from both father and mother.So the Y Chromosome is always preserved throughout a male lineage (Father – Son – Grandson etc) because a Son always gets it from his father, while the X Chromosome is not preserved in the female lineage (Mother, Daughter, Grand Daughter etc) because it comes from both father and mother.A mother will pass either her mother’s X Chromosome to her Children or her father’s X Chromosome to her children or a combination of both because of both her X Chromosomes getting mixed (called as Crossover). On the other hand, a Son always gets his father’s Y Chromosome and that too almost intact without any changes because there is no corresponding another Y chromosome in his cells to do any mixing as his combination is XY, while that of females is XX which hence allows for mixing as both are X Chromosomes.

Y CHROMOSOME AND THE SLI SYSTEM

By now you might have got a clue about the relation between Y Chromosome and the Yek Salai System.Y Chromosome is the only Chromosome which gets passed down only between the men in a lineage. Women never get this Y Chromosome in their body. And hence Y Chromosome plays a crucial role in modern genetics in identifying the Genealogy i.e male ancestry of a person. And the Salai system was designed to track down the root Y Chromosome of a person quite easily. If a person belongs to Kuman then it means that his Y Chromosome came all the way down over thousands of years of timespan from the Khuman Salai.This also makes it clear why females are said to belong to the Salai of their husbands after marriage. That is because women do not carry Y Chromosome, and their Sons will carry the Y Chromosome of the Father and hence the Salai of a woman is said to be that of her husband after marriage. Pretty neat isn’t it?All is well so far, we now know the science behind the Salai System. The ancient Yek salai hence very well knew the existence of the Y Chromosome and the paternal genetic material that was passed almost intact from father to Son, and hence created the Salai system to identify their male lineages. Pakhangba for instance belonged to Ningthouja Salai which means that khagemba was a direct descendant of Pakhangba .But then what is the reason to prevent marriages between individuals belonging to the same Salai? Before we get into that, let us understand a bit more about the Y Chromosome.

THE WEAKNESS OF THE Y CHROMOSOME

The Y Chromosome is the only Chromosome which does not have a similar pair in the human body. The pair of the Y Chromosome in humans is X Chromosome which is significantly different from Y Chromosome. Even the size of the Y Chromosome is just about one third the size of the X Chromosome. In other words throughout evolution the size of the Y Chromosome has been decreasing and it has lost most of its genes and has been reduced to its current size. Scientists are debating whether Y Chromosome will be able to survive for more than a few million years into the future or whether it will gradually vanish, and if it does so whether it will cause males to become extinct! Obviously because Y Chromosome is the one which makes a person male or a man. And if it becomes extinct, Biologists are not sure whether any other Chromosome in our body will be able to completely take over its functionality or not.And the reason for all this is that unlike other Chromosomes, there is no way for Y Chromosome to repair itself by doing cross over with its Chromosomal pair. All other Chromosomes come in similar pairs and when there the DNA of one Chromosome gets damaged the cell can repair it by copying over the DNA from the other Chromosome in that pair as both the Chromosomes in all other pairs are almost identical in nature. This copying (or crossing over as it is called) also allows different combinations of mix and matches to happen between the genes of mother and father and allows the best of the matches to survive and hence make the Chromosomes stronger as they evolve in successive generations. Even X Chromosomes in female undergo this mix and match since there are two X Chromosomes in women.However Y Chromosomes do not have any corresponding equivalent Chromosome in its pair. It can exist only in a XY Combination and X cannot mix and match with Y except for a small 5% of X which matches with Y, while the remaining 95% of Y Chromosome which is crucial in the development of a male have absolutely no match at all!. It is this 95% of the Y Chromosome which is completely responsible in humans for creating a male or a man.But at the same time, Y Chromosome has to depend on itself to repair any of its injuries and for that it has created duplicate copies of its genes within itself. However this does not stop DNA damages in Y Chromosome which escape its local repair process from being propagated into the offspring males. This causes Y Chromosomes to accumulate more and more defects over a prolonged period of evolution and scientists believe that this is what is causing the Y Chromosome to keep losing its weight continuously.As discussed earlier other Chromosomes do not face this issue because they have corresponding pairs from both the parents and the DNA damage could be easily corrected most of the time by the mix and match process that takes place between the two Chromosomes in a pair. This Chromosomal crossover process eliminates damaged genes and is one of the key processes in evolution of life.So to summarize, Y Chromosome which is crucial for the creation and evolution of males has a fundamental weakness which is denying it participation in the normal process of evolution via Chromosomal mix and match to create better versions in every successive generation, and this weakness MAY lead to the extinction of Y Chromosome altogether over the next few million years, and if that happens scientists are not sure whether that would cause males to become extinct or not. And that is because Scientists are not sure whether any other Chromosome in the 23 pairs will be able to take over the role of the Y Chromosome or not. On the other hand, it is not necessary that humanity will not be able to survive if males become extinct. Note that females do not need the Y Chromosome, and since all females have X Chromosomes, it would be still possible to create a mechanism where X Chromosomes from different females are used to create offspring, say like injecting the nuclei from the egg of one female into the egg of another female to fertilize it and that would grow into a girl child. So yes, that would be a humanity where only females exist.