Long before Manipur became shorthand for conflict in national headlines, it was known in classical dance circles for something else entirely: Ras Leela, one of only eight dance forms in India recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as classical. Built around the devotional story of Radha, Krishna and the gopis, it remains one of the state’s most distinctive cultural exports.

The form as it is known today was codified in the 18th century by Ching-Thang Khomba, who ruled Manipur as Maharaja Bhagyachandra from 1759 to 1798. He composed three of the five recognised Ras Leela forms — the Maha Ras, Basanta Ras and Kunja Ras — and staged the first performance at the Shree Govindajee Temple in Imphal in 1779, held over five nights to consecrate the temple’s deity. That performance tied the dance permanently to Manipur’s Vaishnavite religious life, and the temple has remained its ceremonial home ever since.

Ras Leela does not stand alone. Its companion tradition, Sankirtana — the ritual singing, drumming and dancing performed in Manipur’s temples and homes to narrate the life of Krishna — was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2013. The two forms share performers, repertoire and religious purpose, and are often treated as a single continuous tradition of Manipuri Vaishnavism rather than two separate arts.

The tradition has also travelled with Manipuri communities settled outside the state. Among the Bishnupriya Manipuri community in Bangladesh’s Sylhet region, Ras Leela is performed annually as a major religious and cultural festival, most prominently at Kamalganj in Moulvibazar district — a reminder that the dance’s reach extends well beyond Manipur’s own borders, carried by diaspora communities who trace their cultural roots back to the Imphal valley.