Gods, avatars and forms
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
Rati
Kama's wife, who mourned his burning and smeared his ashes on herself; the Puranas promise her his return as Pradyumna…
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…
Yama
Kala · Dharmaraja
God of death, whose noose fell on the linga together with the boy Markandeya; Shiva burst from the linga as Kalantaka…
Shani
The planet-god Saturn whose sidelong glance, in the Brahmavaivarta Purana's telling, made the head of Parvati's newborn…
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…
Varuna
God of the waters. In the Deoghar atmalinga legend Vishnu has him enter Ravana's stomach so that Ravana must stop on…