Manipuri Sankirtana's history is told through a sequence of kings rather than one founding moment. The earliest thread traces to King Kiyamba, who ruled the Manipur valley from 1467 to 1508 and, after receiving an image of Vishnu from a neighboring king, is credited with introducing an early form of devotional kirtan singing into Manipuri court life, centuries before Vaishnavism became the kingdom's official religion. That formal turn came under King Charairongba, who reigned from 1697 to 1709 and began the royal court's adoption of Hindu worship, and it was completed under his successor, King Gareeb Niwaz, who in 1717 embraced the Chaitanya school of devotional Vaishnavism, known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, and made it the state religion of the Meitei people.
The tradition's most celebrated form belongs to a later king still. Rajarshi Bhagyachandra, who ruled through the later eighteenth century, installed the image of Sri Govindajee, understood as a form of Krishna, in a temple built to house it, and instituted the offering of Sankirtana before that image as part of its regular worship. Manipuri Vaishnavas hold the pung, the barrel drum central to the practice, in a reverence that reflects this history directly: the drum's dark color is read as Krishna's own complexion, and its parts are named for Krishna, Radha and the gopis of his story, so that playing it is itself understood as an act of devotion rather than mere musical accompaniment.