Gods, avatars and forms
Shiva
Mahadeva · Maheshvara · Parameshvara · Shankara · Neelakantha · Gangadhara · Pashupati · Adiyogi
The great god of the Shaiva traditions and one of the three of the Puranic Trimurti, where he is assigned dissolution…
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…
Dattatreya
Datta · Avadhuta · Digambara
The son of the sage Atri and Anasuya in whom the natures of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are combined — the one widely…
Mahadevi
Devi · Yoganidra · Mahamaya · Bhuvaneshvari · Adi Shakti
The Great Goddess of the Shakta frame. In the Devi Mahatmya she is the sleep in which Vishnu lies and must leave his…
Kartikeya
Skanda · Murugan · Kumara · Subrahmanya · Shanmukha · Mahasena
The six-headed war-god born to slay Taraka, who could die only to Shiva's son. In the Mahabharata Shiva's fiery seed is…
Ayyappa
Ayyappan · Manikandan · Manikantha · Dharma Shasta · Hariharaputra · Hariharasuta
The god of Sabarimala, held in Kerala to be the son of Shiva and Vishnu-as-Mohini, born to kill the buffalo-demoness…
Ganesha
Ganapati · Vinayaka · Gajanana · Vighneshvara
The elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, remover of obstacles, worshipped first in every rite. The Puranas give at…
Chandra
Soma
The moon god. In the Bhagavata's telling of Anasuya's sons he is Soma, the son who carries Brahma's portion.
Jaya and Vijaya
Jaya-Vijaya · dvarapalas of Vaikuntha
The two gatekeepers of Vaikuntha who barred the child-like Kumaras and were cursed to be born away from Vishnu; they…
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…
Tulsi
Vrinda · Tulasi
Vrinda, wife of the asura Jalandhara, whose chastity shielded him until Vishnu deceived her in his form; she cursed…
Balabhadra (of Puri)
Jagannath's elder brother in the Puri triad, worshipped as Balarama; his chariot Taladhwaja leads the Rath Yatra, and…
Hanuman
Rama's monkey companion who fetched the Vishvalingam from Kailash for Rameswaram and returned with Rama to Ayodhya.
Aiyanar
Ayyanar · Shasta · Hariharaputra · Ayyanayake
Guardian god of the Tamil village boundary, shown on horseback with a sword, with a shrine outside almost every…
Ekadashi (Yogamaya)
The female power that rose from Vishnu while he slept and killed Murasura; he named her Ekadashi and blessed those who…
Indra
King of the gods and Vishnu's partner in the Rigveda; in the churning story his slight to Durvasa's garland brings the…
Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa
Acintya · Sang Hyang Tunggal · Ida Sang Hyang Widhi
The one supreme being of Balinese Hinduism, described as an absolute source rather than a personal god, of whom Brahma…
Subhadra (of Puri)
The sister in the Puri triad, riding the chariot Darpadalana between her brothers; her Nabakalebara tree is chosen by a…
Agni
The Vedic fire god, present at Brahma's Pushkar sacrifice; in the temple telling Savitri's anger falls on him too…
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…
Lingo
Pahandi Kupar Lingo · Pari Kupar Lingo
The culture hero and first priest of the Gonds, who freed the Gond gods from the cave where Mahadeo had sealed them…
Manasa
Manasa Devi · Bishahari
The snake goddess of Bengal, called in the mangalkavya a neglected daughter of Shiva, who wins worship by force from…
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'…
Vayu
The wind god who helped Brihaspati install the Guruvayur image, giving the town the second half of its name.
Baka Brahma
A Brahma of the form realm in the Pali canon who believes his world eternal and himself deathless until the Buddha…
Brahm Baba
Baraham Baba · Brahma Sthan
A village-protector deity of Mithila who lives in a peepal or banyan west of the village and is honoured with earthen…
Brahma Sahampati
The most senior of the great Brahmas in the Pali canon, who comes down to beg the newly awakened Buddha to teach the…
Brihaspati
Guru
Preceptor of the gods who, with Vayu, installed the Krishna image at Guruvayur, giving the town the first half of its…
Dhanvantari
The physician of the gods who rose from the churned ocean carrying the pot of nectar; the Bhagavata calls him a partial…
Durga
The warrior goddess of the Devi Mahatmya who slays the buffalo demon Mahishasura, the demon whose boon that no man…
Kali
Kalika · Dakshina Kali
The fierce goddess of Bengal, shown standing on a prostrate Shiva; declared here only as a stub for the folk record in…
Malini
An elephant-headed goddess named in one Puranic account as Ganesha's birth-mother. Stub entity for that variant.
Nanda Devi
Nanda · Gaura
The mountain goddess of Garhwal and Kumaon, honoured as the Himalaya's daughter and as a young bride leaving her…
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…
Surya
The sun god; in the Puranic account of the discus, radiance shaved from him so that his wife Sanjna could bear his…
Vishvakarma
The divine architect: maker of the Sudarshana in the Ramayana, builder of Sutala for Bali, and the carver of Puri's…
Vishvaksena
Vishnu's gatekeeper and commander. In the Shaiva Bhikshatana cycle he bars the skull-bearing Shiva from Vaikuntha, is…
Yama
Kala · Dharmaraja
God of death, whose noose fell on the linga together with the boy Markandeya; Shiva burst from the linga as Kalantaka…
Bhagavan (Baiga)
The high god of the Baiga tellings Elwin collected, who sends for Nanga Baiga to fix the earth; the name is the Hindi…
Bhagwan (Bhil)
The supreme deity of the Bhils as documented by Wilhelm Koppers, who in the flood tale makes the earth and the first…
Karuppasamy
Karuppu · Karuppanna Swamy
A dark-skinned Tamil village guardian who is worshipped beside Aiyanar and, in the Sanskritised telling, folded in as…
Madurai Veeran
Veeran
A deified Tamil folk hero of the Madurai region, worshipped as a guardian and counted among Aiyanar's attendants in the…
Mahamaya (Yoganidra)
Yoganidra · Devi
The Goddess as the sleep that holds Vishnu on the cosmic waters in the Devi Mahatmya; Brahma must praise her and ask…
Marang Buru
Great Mountain
'Great mountain', the Santal deity closest to people and leader of the bongas (spirits), invoked in the sacred grove.
Panjurli
Panjurli Daiva
A boar-spirit guardian of the Tulu-speaking coast, worshipped in Bhuta Kola; the paddanas tell how a piglet raised by…
Persa Pen
Bara Deo · Great God
The 'great god' of the Gond clans, established as an object of worship by Lingo after the gods were freed from the cave.
Shani
The planet-god Saturn whose sidelong glance, in the Brahmavaivarta Purana's telling, made the head of Parvati's newborn…
Singbonga
Sing Bonga · Sun God
The sun god and creator of Munda and Ho tradition, who brooded over the first waters, sent creatures diving for clay…
Thakur Jiu
Thakur · Marang Buru (leader of the bongas, distinct)
The creator in Santal tradition, who made the first water-birds over the primal ocean and, through their eggs, the…
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…
The Matrikas
Saptamatrika · Carcika · Mangala
The mother-goddesses who drank the blood of Andhaka so that no new demon could spring from each fallen drop; the Vamana…
Varuna
God of the waters. In the Deoghar atmalinga legend Vishnu has him enter Ravana's stomach so that Ravana must stop on…