Everyone and everything
Jagannath
Nila Madhava · Purushottama · Darubrahma
The wooden lord of Puri, worshipped with Balabhadra and Subhadra, whose bodies are carved anew from chosen neem trees…
Venkateswara
Srinivasa · Balaji · Venkatachalapati · Govinda
Vishnu as the lord of the Venkata hill, the temple tradition's answer to why the god left Vaikuntha: after Bhrigu's…
Harihara
Shankaranarayana · Hari-Hara
Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara) as one body split down the middle, the ascetic Shiva half on the right and the crowned…
Ranganatha
Sri Ranganathaswamy · Arangan · Periya Perumal
The reclining Vishnu of the Kaveri island, whose image faces south because it refused to move on from Srirangam when…
Vithoba
Vitthala · Panduranga · Pandharinath
The god who stands arms-akimbo on a brick at Pandharpur because the devotee Pundalik, busy serving his parents, tossed…
Bhairava
Kala Bhairava · Mahakala Bhairava
Shiva's terrifying form. In the Lingodbhava cycle he cuts off Brahma's fifth head and wanders with the skull until…
Mohini
Mohini-avatara
The enchantress form Vishnu takes: in the Bhagavata to hand the nectar of the churning to the gods, and later to be…
Padmanabhaswamy
Ananta Padmanabha · Sree Padmanabha
The reclining Vishnu of Travancore, seen through three doors as face, body and feet. Two origin accounts: the Kerala…
Rudra
Rudra-Shiva · Kapardin
The Vedic layer of Shiva: a fierce, howling storm-god of the Rigveda with matted hair, tawny colour, bow and arrows…
Shrinathji
Nathji · Govardhannathji
The Pushtimarg's child Krishna lifting Govardhan, an image held to have emerged of itself from the hill near Mathura —…
Udupi Krishna
Udupi Sri Krishna · Kadagolu Krishna
The child Krishna with a churning rod, found by Madhvacharya inside a lump of gopichandana clay from a ship he had…
Narayana (Anantashayana)
Anantashayana · Padmanabha · Garbhodakashayi Vishnu · Sheshashayi
Vishnu as the cosmic being who rests on the waters. Manusmriti derives the name from the waters (nara) that were his…
Phra Phrom
Thai Brahma · Four-faced Buddha
Thailand's four-faced Brahma, worshipped as a guardian spirit in Thai Buddhist and animist practice; the Erawan Shrine…
Sundareswarar
Sokkanathar · Chokkanathar
Shiva as the handsome lord of Madurai, Meenakshi's husband, who in the Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam walks into the city in…
Badrinarayan
Badri Vishal · Badrinath (deity)
The small black stone Vishnu of Badrinath, held to be self-manifested and, by tradition, recovered from the Tapt Kund…
Dakshinamurthy
Dakshinamurti · Adiyogi · Adinath (Nath usage)
Shiva as the silent teacher, seated under a banyan tree facing south, surrounded by sages, teaching yoga, music and the…
Guruvayurappan
Guruvayoorappan · Unnikrishnan
The four-armed Vishnu-Krishna of Guruvayur, whose image temple lore traces from Vishnu's own hands in Vaikuntha through…
Nataraja
Adavallan · Koothan · Sabesan
Shiva as lord of the dance, performing the Ananda Tandava, the dance of bliss, in the Tillai forest for the sages…
Sankaranarayana
Sankara Narayanar · Shankaranarayana
The Tamil name and temple form of Harihara at Sankarankovil: Shiva as the right half and Vishnu as the left, appearing…
Virabhadra
Veerabhadra
The warrior born from a lock of Shiva's hair dashed on the ground when Sati died; with Bhadrakali he wrecked Daksha's…
Ardhanarishvara
Shiva as half woman: right half male, left half Parvati, stating that the two principles cannot be separated. The…
Kalantaka
Kalasamhara · Mrityunjaya
Shiva as the ender of death, the form that burst from the linga to strike down Yama when his noose fell on the boy…
Kirata
Kiratamurti
Shiva disguised as a mountain hunter to test Arjuna, in the Mahabharata's Vana Parva and Bharavi's court epic…
Mahakala
Mahakaleshwar · Kala
Shiva as great time and death, beyond time, with Mahakali as consort; the Shaktisamgama Tantra describes him and…
Nilamadhava
Nila Madhava
The blue-stone image of Vishnu that tradition says the Sabara chief Viswavasu worshipped in secret in the forest before…
Sadashiva
Panchamukha · Maheshamurti (Elephanta)
Shiva with five faces and ten arms: Sadyojata (west, creation), Vamadeva (north, preservation), Aghora (south…
Bhikshatana
The wandering mendicant
Shiva as the naked wandering beggar who carries Brahma's skull as his bowl to atone for cutting the fifth head. The…
Hayagriva
The horse-headed form of Vishnu who, in the Mahabharata's Shanti Parva and the Bhagavata line, kills Madhu and Kaitabha…
Vishnumoorthi Theyyam
Vishnumoorthy · Vishnumurti Theyyam
The most popular Vaishnava Theyyam of north Malabar: a possession-performance in which Vishnu's man-lion form and the…