Pakhangba
Pakhangba ('the one who knows his father') is the primordial serpent-dragon deity of Meitei Sanamahism and the royal ancestral god. Per the Manipuri puranas (Parratt) he is the younger son of the supreme creator Atiya/Atingkok Guru Sidaba (recorded here as Salailen) and the earth-mother Leimarel Sidabi, and younger brother of Sanamahi. He wins the celebrated succession contest — by recognizing the father disguised as a dead cow, and/or by coiling around the throne rather than racing the cosmos — and so becomes lord of the throne and patron of kingship. As progenitor of the Ningthouja clan (whose totem is the serpent) his identity merges with Nongda Lairen Pakhangba, the traditional first king (33 CE); his coiled serpent-dragon emblem, the paphal, is the heraldic device of the Manipur kingdom. This is the primordial divine ancestor, distinct from (though identified with) the historical-royal figure already in the registry as Chothe Thangwai Pakhangba.
Parentage
- father: SalailenSon of the supreme creator Atingkok / Atiya Guru Sidaba (recorded here as Salailen).Parratt, The Religion of Manipur (1980) (secondary)
- mother: Leimarel SidabiSon of the earth-mother Leimarel Sidabi.Parratt, The Religion of Manipur (1980) (secondary)
Domains
- kingship and sovereignty
- serpents and dragons
- ancestral progenitor
Powers
- Serpent-dragon transformation (the paphal)
Relations
- father: SalailenSon of the supreme creator Atingkok / Atiya Guru Sidaba (recorded here as Salailen).Parratt, The Religion of Manipur (1980) (secondary)
- mother: Leimarel SidabiSon of the earth-mother Leimarel Sidabi.Parratt, The Religion of Manipur (1980) (secondary)
- sibling: Lainingthou SanamahiYounger brother of Sanamahi; wins the throne in the central Sanamahi–Pakhangba rivalry.Parratt, The Religion of Manipur (1980): brother of Sanamahi (secondary)
Sources
- existence: S. N. Arambam Parratt, The Religion of Manipur (1980) (secondary); T. C. Hodson, The Meitheis (1908) (secondary)