Panthoibi
Manipuri · deity · mythic prehistoric · deity
Panthoibi (Nongpok Leima, 'Queen of the East') is the great Meitei warrior-love goddess — patroness of courage, victory and warfare, and of love, fertility, civilization, handicraft and wisdom. Remembered as a deified princess of the Ningthouja line from before Pakhangba's consecration (33 CE), she is also held to be a divine incarnation of the earth-mother Leimarel Sidabi. Her defining narrative, preserved in the Panthoibi Khonggul and related texts, is her rejection of an arranged marriage and her elopement with the eastern god Nongpok Ningthou, whom she joins on the Nongmaiching hills; their union at the Kangla sanctified it as the place where Meitei kings were crowned. The couple stand at the heart of the Lai Haraoba festival.
Domains
- war and victory
- love and fertility
- civilization and handicraft
- wisdom
Powers
- Grant courage and victory in war
- Bestow civilization, handicraft and wisdom
Epithets
- Nongpok Leima
Relations
- spouse: Nongpok Ningthou
- equated with: Leimarel Sidabi
Sources
- T. C. Hodson, The Meitheis (1908)
- Panthoibi Khonggul (ancient Meitei text)