The Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL) has urged the Art and Culture Department to first transliterate archaic Meitei/Meetei texts into Meetei Mayek before introducing them to students for reading.
In a statement, MEELAL Secretary (Publicity) Singamayum Chaoba said the organisation submitted a representation to the Director of Art and Culture on September 28, following a department notice dated September 24 inviting submissions for a two-month programme on the “Reading of Archaic Meitei/Meetei Script (Puya).”
The notice, bearing No. 6/11/2003 A-C (Archive), fixed October 8 as the last date for submission.
MEELAL said students today are being taught the 27-letter Meetei Mayek and argued that they should not be required to learn additional scripts merely to access Puya written in archaic scripts.
It urged the department to transliterate all relevant Puya into Meetei Mayek and make them available to students and the public. The organisation said it would have no objection to studying the texts once they are made accessible in Meetei Mayek.
MEELAL appealed to the Art and Culture Department to halt the proposed initiative until such transliteration is undertaken, arguing that efforts to preserve the language and script should prioritise wider accessibility of historical texts.
Chaoba said MEELAL has been working since 2005 to promote the teaching and use of Meetei Mayek and expressed hope that the Director would take appropriate action on the representation.