ABSTRACT
The State of Manipur, the ‘jewelled land’, is part of India’s north-eastern region. It lies astride a mountainous extension of the Himalayas, with the Naga hills curving in from the north-east and the Letha range in upper Myanmar (formerly Burma) continuing south. The international frontier with Myanmar lies to the east and to the south of the state, while the neighbouring Indian states are Mizoram to the south-west, Assam to the west and Nagaland in the north-west and north. A princely state until its incorporation into India on 15 October 1949, Manipur was designated a territory before becoming a full state of the Union on 21 January 1972. It has an area of 22,327 sq km (13,865 sq miles).
