in meitei mythology (manipuri mythology), death is personified with multiple deities, including thongalel, the ruler of the underworld and the god of the death, along with his wives. in the underworld kingdom, he administers the souls of the death, either to resend them or to bring a new one to and from the human world. at these tasks, he is assisted by thongak lairembi and khamnung kikoi louonbi. the underworld kingdom is called "khamnung kingdom" and its capital city, "khamnung sawa" is in the middle of the river "ashi turel", which has only a single bridge made up of a thread. this should be crossed over by only those souls who do not commit suicide during their earthly life. else, one has to struck over inside the underworld kingdom but outside the capital city "khamnung sawa", which is, of course, a painstaking life too for the souls.