"Khamba Thoibi, which forms a part of Moirang Saiyol, is a folk epic of Manipur that has been told and sung over the ages and is known to every person in the land. If all the stories of Moirang Saiyol are taken together, it will form an even bigger epic."
The ancient legend of Khamba and Thoibi is a classic, as well as one of the epic cycles of incarnations of Meitei mythology and folklore, that is originated from Ancient Moirang kingdom of Ancient Kangleipak .
"I was delighted to see Khamba Thoibi at Manipur when you produced it as perhaps the first full scale ballet in the Manipuri form of dancing. The whole conception and execution wns excellent and some of the dancers were obviously highly talented and extremely well trained. I personally think that the Manipuri style is the most graceful form of Indian dancing and I wish you every success in your attempt to develop and popularise it."
Khamba Thoibi"I think the entire work should be published and that will at once raise the prestige and dignity of Manipuri literature; and an abstract of the poem in English with translations of typical passages, and a critical study of it, will be desideratum in Indian literature bringing home to the rest of India and to the world what important things, important from the point of view of voicing the aspirations, the ideals and the social and cultural milieu of a whole people are being done in this distant corner of India. The position of our Poet is comparable to that of Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali and Modern Indo-Aryan literature."
Khamba Thoibi"Considering its growth, Khamba and Thoibi is a popular or folk-epic. The epic of this kind may be regarded as the final product of a long series of accretions and syntheses brought to approximate unity by the intervention of conscious art. By general agreement poems like the Greek Iliad and Odyssey, the Germanic Nibelungenlled, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and the Finish Kallevala are classed as folk-epics."
Khamba Thoibi"Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith is inclined to agree-- The Manipuri Dance managed and directed by Mrs Vimala Raina staged a beautiful performance of Khamba Thoibi. It is a Dance Drama based on a story of royal life in the 11th century. He believes Khamba Thoibi would win acclaim in any America theatre."
Khamba Thoibi"When I think of the extent and comprehensive character of Khamba and Thoibi Seireng. I am reminded of the Shah-nama, the National epic of Persia and the Kalevale, the national epic of Finland on the one hand, and of artistic epics like the Latin Acneld of virgil and the English Sigurd the Volsung by Willam Morris on the other. I am convinced this single work will considerably raise the value of Manipuri among the languages of India and the World."
Khamba Thoibi"Anganghals masterpiece "Khamba Thoibi Seireng" celebrated the immortal love of Khamba and Thoibi of ancient times and civilisation, faithfully portraying the national life and manners, the hopes and aspirations of the people, their struggles, sufferings and joys with epic breath of vision, richness of details and directness of ideas. It was a significant contribution to Indian literature from a Tibeto-Burman language to the vast corpus of modern Indian epics."
Khamba Thoibi