Cite
MLA
“Burmese conquest of Manipur.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/burmese-conquest-of-manipur-1819/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Burmese conquest of Manipur. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/burmese-conquest-of-manipur-1819/
Marjit Singh was driven out to Cachar and the Burmese held Manipur for seven years, until Gambhir Singh freed it in 1825–26.
01A client king turns away
Manipur had been raided by Burmese armies many times in the eighteenth century. In 1812 Marjit Singh, a younger son of the great Bhagyachandra, took the throne from his brother with Burmese backing. Once secure, he began to act as an independent king. In 1819 Bagyidaw succeeded Bodawpaya at Ava and summoned his tributaries. Marjit did not go. Bagyidaw sent Maha Bandula, his most famous general, against him.
02Seven years of devastation
Marjit’s army could not hold the valley. He fled with his brothers Chourjit and Gambhir Singh to Cachar, where the three later fought each other for that small kingdom. Manipur was left under Burmese occupation. Villages were emptied, many Meiteis were carried off to Burma, and many more fled to Cachar, Sylhet and Tripura. The period is remembered as the Chahi Taret Khuntakpa, the Seven Years Devastation.
03Gambhir Singh comes back
When the First Anglo-Burmese War broke out in 1824, Gambhir Singh raised the Manipur Levy with Company arms and training. He drove the Burmese out of the valley in 1825 and followed them to the Kabaw valley. The Treaty of Yandabo in February 1826 recognised him as Raja of Manipur.
The occupation nearly emptied the Manipur valley, and its end in 1826 tied Manipur’s future to the British.
