Everyone and everything
Vishnu
Narayana · Hari · Perumal · Mayon · Trivikrama · Srinivasa
Vishnu begins as a minor god of the Rigveda, addressed in only a handful of hymns and remembered for pacing out the…
Brahma
Prajapati · Pitamaha · Svayambhu · Hiranyagarbha · Chaturmukha · Vidhi · Vethan (Ayyavazhi) · Phra Phrom (Thailand)
The creator of the Puranic triad, grandfather of the worlds, father of the mind-born sages and the giver of boons that…
Bhrigu
Bhrigu Maharishi
One of the great seers and a son of Brahma. In the Bhagavata he is chosen by the sages on the Sarasvati to find out…
Anasuya
Anusuya
Wife of the sage Atri, held up as the model of a chaste and austere wife. When the three gods come to her hermitage as…
Ravana
The ten-headed king of Lanka and a great devotee of Shiva: he tried to lift Kailash and was pinned under Shiva's toe…
Lakshmi
Shri · Padma · Kamala · Mahalakshmi
Goddess of fortune and radiance. The Rigveda speaks of Shri as prosperity and the Shri Sukta hymns her; the Shatapatha…
Savitri
Brahma's wife in the Pushkar cycle. She arrives late to his yajna, finds he has married Gayatri to complete the rite…
Chandra
Soma
The moon god. In the Bhagavata's telling of Anasuya's sons he is Soma, the son who carries Brahma's portion.
Kaitabha
Twin of Madhu, born from Vishnu's ear-wax. Deluded by the Goddess in the Devi Mahatmya, the pair grant Vishnu a boon…
Kamadeva
Kama · Manmatha · Ananga · Madana
The god of desire, sent by the gods to make the mourning ascetic Shiva love Parvati so that a son could be born to kill…
Madhu
One of the twin demons born from the wax of Vishnu's ears while he sleeps on the cosmic waters. With Kaitabha he…
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…
Narada
A mind-born son of Brahma, the wandering divine sage and musician who carries news between the worlds. His best-known…
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…
Atri
One of the seven great seers, husband of Anasuya and father of Dattatreya. In the Bhagavata he prays to the three gods…
Daksha
Daksha Prajapati
A Rigvedic aditya later made a Prajapati under Brahma; the Mahabharata has him and his wife emerge from Brahma's two…
Diwali
Deepavali
The autumn festival of lamps that carries four Vishnu stories by region: Rama's homecoming, Krishna's killing of…
Hanuman
Rama's monkey companion who fetched the Vishvalingam from Kailash for Rameswaram and returned with Rama to Ayodhya.
Saraswati
Vac · Sharada · Brahmani · Vagdevi
Goddess of speech, learning and the arts, and the most sensitive figure in Brahma's cycle: the Puranas make her his…
Bhagiratha
The Ikshvaku king whose austerities won Brahma's leave for Ganga to descend and Shiva's consent to catch her, so that…
Durvasa
The quick-tempered sage whose curse, after Indra's elephant trampled his garland, drained the gods of strength and…
Indra
King of the gods and Vishnu's partner in the Rigveda; in the churning story his slight to Durvasa's garland brings the…
Shatarupa
She of a hundred forms
The daughter of Brahma and, in the Brahma Purana, the first woman and the wife of Svayambhuva Manu; their children…
Skanda Purana
The largest Purana; its Purushottama Kshetra Mahatmya is the founding story of Puri and its Panduranga Mahatmya one of…
Agni
The Vedic fire god, present at Brahma's Pushkar sacrifice; in the temple telling Savitri's anger falls on him too…
Arjuna
The third Pandava, whose austerity in the Himalaya for divine weapons was tested by Shiva disguised as a hunter; he…
Brahmotsavam
The great annual temple festival of South India, named for Brahma because he is held to have been its first officiant…
Ganga
Bhagirathi · Jahnavi · Tripathaga · Vishnupadi
The river goddess who fell from heaven at Bhagiratha's plea to redeem Sagara's sixty thousand sons and was caught in…
Kubera
Lord of wealth; in the Tirumala telling he lends Srinivasa the money for his wedding to Padmavati, a debt pilgrims are…
Pushkar
Pushkar Lake · Brahma Temple, Pushkar
The lake town where Brahma's lotus fell and where he held his sacrifice; home of his best-known temple…
Rigveda
The oldest Vedic collection; Vishnu has five of its 1,028 hymns and appears as the three-striding friend of Indra; the…
Sagara
The king whose sixty thousand sons were burned by Kapila's glance while searching for the sacrificial horse. Stub…
Samba
Son of Krishna and Jambavati, granted by Shiva after Krishna's six-month penance and named after the Ardhanarishvara…
Sandhya
Arundhati (in a later birth, per the Shiva Purana)
Twilight personified, born of Brahma's mind; the Shiva Purana's Sati-khanda has her draw her father's and brothers'…
Svayambhuva Manu
The first Manu, born of Brahma and his female half in the Matsya account and married to Shatarupa; the human line…
Vaikuntha Chaturdashi
Kartik bright fourteenth, when at Kashi Vishwanath Vishnu is said to offer tulsi to Shiva and Shiva bael to Vishnu…
Vasishtha
Vashishtha
A mind-born son of Brahma and one of the great seers; in the Shiva Purana's Sandhya story the reborn Arundhati becomes…
Vayu
The wind god who helped Brihaspati install the Guruvayur image, giving the town the second half of its name.
Agastya
The southern sage; in the Gajendra story his curse turns the proud Pandya king Indradyumna into an elephant.
Amogha
Wife of the sage Shantanu in the Kalika Purana; Brahma desires her, is refused, and the son that results, Lauhitya…
Brahma Temple, Asotra (Shri Kheteshwar Brahmadham Teerth)
A modern Brahma temple built by Sant Khetaram Ji Maharaj and promoted as India's second Brahma temple after Pushkar.
Brahma Temple, Khedbrahma
A late-eleventh-century temple dedicated to Brahma, one of the few in India.
Brahmaputra river
Lauhitya · Son of Brahma
The great river of Assam, named as Brahma's son: in the Kalika Purana the child Lauhitya takes the form of water.
Brihaspati
Guru
Preceptor of the gods who, with Vayu, installed the Krishna image at Guruvayur, giving the town the first half of its…
Gayatri
The woman Brahma marries at Pushkar so that his yajna can go ahead when Savitri is late. In the temple telling she is a…
Guru Purnima
Vyasa Purnima
The Ashadha full moon honouring teachers, traditionally Veda Vyasa's birthday and for Buddhists the day of the first…
Hiranyaksha
The demon king who adopted the blind child Andhaka. Stub entity for that story; the Vishnu cycle (Varaha) owns his full…
Kapila
The sage whose glance burned Sagara's sixty thousand sons to ash when they accused him of stealing the sacrificial…
Kartik Purnima at Pushkar
Pushkar Fair · Pushkar Mela
Brahma's one large public festival: the full-moon bathing day of the month of Kartik at Pushkar lake, which closes the…
Kiratarjuniya
Bharavi's sixth-century Sanskrit court epic in eighteen cantos on Arjuna's duel with Shiva the hunter. Stub entity.
Kumarasambhava
Kalidasa's fifth-century court epic on Parvati's austerity, Kama's burning, the wedding and the conception of Kumara…
Kumbh Mela
The great bathing fair rotating between four river cities, explained by the story that drops of the churning's nectar…
Lakshmana
Rama's younger brother; declared here as a stub because the Jain Ramayana makes him, not Rama, the killer of Ravana, as…
Mahabharata
The great epic; its Vana, Shalya and Anushasana Parvas tell Kartikeya's birth, the Vana Parva the hunter's duel with…
Manasaputras, the mind-born sons of Brahma
The children Brahma produced from his mind rather than by birth. Lists differ by text but include Narada, Daksha…
Mandar Parvat
Mandar hill · Bounsi
A granite hill near Bhagalpur that local belief identifies with the Mandara used as the churning rod; it carries a…
Matsya Purana
Purana holding the earliest developed form of Kama's burning (chapters 227–255 per Wikipedia), a Ganesha birth from…
Maya Danava
Maya
The architect of the demons who built the three cities for Taraka's sons and, in the Bhagavata, revived the slain…
Mount Kailash
Kailasa · Gang Rinpoche
The 6,638 m peak that Hindus hold to be Shiva's home with Parvati, Ganesha and Kartikeya, identified with Meru; never…
Narasimhavarman I
Mamalla
Pallava king (seventh century) whose title Malla appears in the inscription of the Trimurti cave at Mahabalipuram.
Prajapati
Hiranyagarbha · Lord of creatures
The Vedic creator figure that later tradition equates with Brahma. In the Rigveda the name is applied to several gods…
Rahu
Svarbhanu · Ketu
The asura Svarbhanu who drank the nectar in a god's disguise, was exposed by the sun and moon and beheaded by Mohini's…
Rati
Kama's wife, who mourned his burning and smeared his ashes on herself; the Puranas promise her his return as Pradyumna…
Shatapatha Brahmana
Ritual exegesis of the White Yajurveda; its 1.2.5 tells of Vishnu as the sacrifice in dwarf form winning the earth for…
Shukra
Shukracharya
Preceptor of the asuras who warned Bali that the dwarf was Vishnu and that the gift would cost him everything.
Surya
The sun god; in the Puranic account of the discus, radiance shaved from him so that his wife Sanjna could bear his…
The Indus 'Pashupati' seal
Mohenjo-daro seal 420
A steatite seal found by Ernest Mackay at Mohenjo-daro in 1928–29, dated about 2350–2000 BCE, showing a horned seated…
The Kumaras
Sanaka · Sanandana · Sanatana · Sanat Kumara
Brahma's four mind-born sons who look like children forever; turned away at Vaikuntha's gate, they cursed Jaya and…
Vajranabha
The demon Brahma kills with his lotus-weapon before the Pushkar sacrifice; where the petals fall the three Pushkar…
Valmiki Ramayana
The epic whose Bala Kanda tells Ganga's descent and makes her Himavat's daughter, whose Uttara Kanda has Ravana lift…
Vamana Purana
Purana giving a softer Shiva in the Kama story, Parvati's hundred forms and the Matrikas' names in the Andhaka story…
Vishvakarma
The divine architect: maker of the Sudarshana in the Ramayana, builder of Sutala for Bali, and the carver of Puri's…
Yama
Kala · Dharmaraja
God of death, whose noose fell on the linga together with the boy Markandeya; Shiva burst from the linga as Kalantaka…
Bhima
The second Pandava, who recognised Shiva in the bull near Guptakashi and seized it by the tail and hind legs, so that…
Brahmahatya
The sin of killing a brahmin, personified in the beheading story as the force that clings to Shiva or Bhairava…
Dattatreya as the three gods in one
The one widely worshipped image in which Brahma is a full third of the god: Dattatreya, son of the sage Atri and…
Jahnu
The sage who drank the descending Ganga when she flooded his hermitage and released her from his ear, giving her the…
Kalidasa
The Sanskrit poet (c. fourth to fifth century CE) whose Kumarasambhava already treats Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as one…
Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram)
The Pallava port whose so-called Trimurti cave holds three shrines cut under Narasimhavarman I; the identity of the…
Muka
The demon who charged Arjuna as a wild boar and was shot at once by Arjuna and by Shiva the hunter. Stub entity.
Purusha (the cosmic person)
Purusha Sukta
The thousand-headed being of Rigveda 10.90 whose sacrifice by the gods yields the social orders, the Vedas, the moon…
Shani
The planet-god Saturn whose sidelong glance, in the Brahmavaivarta Purana's telling, made the head of Parvati's newborn…
Shantanu (sage of the Kalika Purana)
The sage husband of Amogha in the Brahmaputra origin story, not the Kuru king of the Mahabharata; he brings the child…
The Krittikas
Pleiades · Karthigai stars
The six star-mothers who nursed the six infants that became Kartikeya, giving him his name; their star marks the day of…
Trimurti
Trinity · Trimurthi
The idea that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Rudra) are three faces of one divine reality, charged with creation…
Varuna
God of the waters. In the Deoghar atmalinga legend Vishnu has him enter Ravana's stomach so that Ravana must stop on…
Vasuki
The serpent king used as the churning rope around Mount Mandara.