Lainingthou Sanamahi is the central deity of household Sanamahism — the supreme guardian god of the home and of mankind. Per the Manipuri puranas (Parratt) he is the eldest son of the supreme creator Atiya/Atingkok Guru Sidaba (recorded in this registry as Salailen) and the earth-mother Leimarel Sidabi, and elder brother of Pakhangba. The defining myth is the brothers' contest for their father's throne: Sanamahi loses (Pakhangba coils around the throne instead of racing the cosmos, or alone recognizes the father disguised as a dead cow), and is compensated with sovereignty over every human household. He is worshipped, with Leimarel, in the sacred south-western corner of the Meitei house. In the puranic cosmology he is further credited as the demiurge who fashioned the world, living beings and humankind in the image of the supreme father. His name is popularly read 'liquid gold,' after the molten-gold pool (Isaiphu) of his birth.