Title: Manipuri Polo Players and Ponies        

The Illustrated London News,           

2 May 1891

Dimensions: Sheet: 18 x 24 cm 

Engraver: William Barnes Wollen

Medium: Wood Engraving

Classification: Prints

On Display — Ground Floor

ARC-PRT-003

Description 

This wood-engraving print shows four Meitei polo players in traditional Sagol Kangjei match costumes. The engraving is adapted from a photograph and was published in The Illustrated London News on May 2, 1891. It appeared in connection with the news of the Anglo-Manipuri War, a time when the word “Manipur” was on every Englishman’s lips, as noted in The Graphic on May 9, 1891.

Sagol Kangjei, the original form of modern polo, is believed to have been introduced by the proto-historic King Kangba in pre-Christian Manipur. First played during the festival Ukrong Hongba, it began with dribbling a bamboo root and soon evolved into a horseback game. Another early reference appears during King Nongda Lairen Pakhangba’s time (33 AD), when two teams of seven—later deified as gods—played a kangjei match.

Though some sources date the game’s popularity to the 15th–16th centuries during the reign of King Kyamba, the first clear record appears in 1606 CE during King Khagemba’s reign. Manipuris carried the game to Cachar and Sylhet during Burmese invasions in the 18th–19th centuries, where British officers first saw and played it. This led to the formation of the world’s first polo club, Silchar Kangjei Club (1859), followed by the Calcutta Polo Club (1862), and later its spread to England and beyond.

Traditionally, Manipuris played under unwritten rules guided by leibak macha taba (cultured conduct). A major early rule banned sagol tupa (hitting another pony’s flank) after a fatal accident. Matches had no time limit and were played to a fixed number of goals.

Historical records, including the Cheitharol Kumbaba, mention many royal and public matches from the 1820s onwards. A famous 1861 series saw a Meitei team overwhelmingly defeat British tea planters, arguably the earliest international polo encounters.

Reference: Rajkumar Nimai Singh, Polo’s birthplace: Thoughts from Manipur as polo in England turns 150, US Polo Association, April 2020, pp.62-64

About the Artist

William Barnes Wollen was an English artist renowned for his vivid depictions of battle scenes, historical events, and military engagements. Born in Leipzig and trained at University College School and the Slade School of Fine Art, he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours from 1879 to 1922.

Wollen served as a special war artist during the Boer War for The Sphere, and later illustrated scenes from the First World War. Many of his works are held in national military museums in the United Kingdom and abroad. He spent most of his career in London, where he died in 1936.