Settlement of Boundary between Manipur and Angami, 1841 - 42

Settlement of Boundary between Manipur and Angami, 1841 - 42

The boundary between the Angamis and Manipur was to be finally settled to prevent irritation on that side, and a road was to be opened to Sammoogoodting from the plains. A nominal tribute was to be taken from the Nagas as soon as they could be brought to consent to its payment. To arrange the boundary, Lieutenant Biggs marched across the hills in the cold weather of 1841-42. It was decided, in conference with Captain Gordon, Political Agent at Manipur that “Commencing from the upper part of the Jeeree River, the western frontier of Manipur, the line of boundary formed (i) by the Dootighur Mountain, or that range of hills in which the Mookroo River takes its rise, east on to the Barak River; (ii) by the Barak River up to where it is joined by the Toyphani River which flows along the eastern line of the Popolongmai Hill; (3) by the Toyphani River up to its source on the Burrail range of Mountains; and (4) by the summit or water-pent of the Burrail range on to the source of the Mow River flowing north from that point towards Assam, was the best boundary between Manipur and the Angami country. Firstly, because the Angami Naga and all the inferior tribes subject to their influence occupy the mountainous part north of the boundary here given, and have together been the perpetrators of all the acts of aggression which have been committed of late years both in Cachar and Manipur.

Secondly because along the western portion of the boundary here proposed, the whole of the villages south of it, which were before near this frontier, having been from time to time destroyed by the tribes from the north, and their inhabitants obliged for protection to locate themselves further south a considerable tract of mountainous country in this direction is completely deserted. Thirdly because along the portion of the boundary here proposed to the east of Popolongmai the Angamis tribes are separated from the Nagas of Manipur by a lofty range of mountains across which little, if any, communication takes place. Fourthly because the Manipur Government not having at present any control or authority over the villages to the north, and the Angamis not possession any influence over those to the south of this proposed boundary throughout its whole extent, its adoption would not disjoin connected tribes on separate any village from a jurisdiction to which it has been long attached, as would be the case where any portion of the country north of the line suggested made over to the Manipur Government’s.

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