Nongshāba
Dragon Lion in Meitei mythology
Nongshaba (Meitei: ꯅꯣꯡꯁꯥꯕ) is a lion god in Sanamahism and Meitei mythology. He is also regarded as a king of the gods. He is credited with producing light in the primordial universe and is regarded as the maker of the sun. He is worshipped by the people of both the Ningthouja clans as well as the Moirang clans. Nongshaba was worshipped by the people of Moirang clan as a lineage deity and regarded as the father of the god Thangching.
He is the greatest of the Umang Lais (Meitei for 'forest gods') but he made his only son Thangching the chief deity of Moirang.
History
The cult of Nongshaba was brought from Moirang by Mungyaang Ngairaangba and Yumnaam Tonba, who presented the deity to King Khagemba (Meitei: ꯈꯥꯒꯦꯝꯕ) (r. 1597-1652 AD). The position Nongshaba's cult was buoyed by his recognition as an Umang Lai and installation as King of the gods, and the construction of a five storied-temple in his honour. Other Umang Lais became lesser deities.
The public source identifies “Nongshāba” as dragon Lion in Meitei mythology. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nongshāba, Dragon and Lion.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nongshāba” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.