Gods and demons churn the milk ocean with Mount Mandara on the tortoise's back; poison, treasures, Lakshmi and the nectar emerge, and Vishnu as Mohini keeps the nectar for the gods.
Indra hangs a garland given by Durvasa on his elephant, which throws it down, and the sage curses the gods to lose their strength and fortune.
Shri vanishes into the sea and the gods, weakened, go to Vishnu for counsel.
Vishnu tells them to make a truce with the asuras and churn the ocean of milk for the nectar of immortality.
Mount Mandara is the rod and Vasuki the rope; when the mountain sinks Vishnu becomes the tortoise Kurma and holds it on his shell.
A poison rises first; Shiva drinks it and his throat turns blue.
Treasures follow — the wish-cow, the white horse, the elephant, the Kaustubha jewel, the wishing tree, the nymphs, the moon — and Lakshmi, who chooses Vishnu.
Dhanvantari rises with the pot of nectar and the asuras seize it.
Vishnu becomes the enchantress Mohini, takes the pot, and serves the gods while the asuras watch.
The asura Svarbhanu sits among the gods and drinks; the sun and moon expose him and Mohini's discus severs his head, which lives on as Rahu.
The Bhagavata tells the churning at length across canto eight. The weakened gods are sent by Vishnu to ally with the asuras; the mountain and the serpent become the churn; the tortoise takes the mountain's weight; poison rises and Shiva holds it in his throat. Then the sea gives up its wonders one after another: the cow Surabhi, the moon-white horse that Bali claims, the elephant Airavata, the Kaustubha and the parijata tree, the celestial dancers, and Lakshmi herself, who surveys the assembly and chooses Vishnu. The liquor Varuni goes to the demons, and at last Dhanvantari appears — a portion of Vishnu's own portion — carrying the jug of nectar. The asuras snatch it. Vishnu takes the form of Mohini, dark as a new lotus, and the demons hand her the pot; she serves the gods only. One asura sits in their line disguised; the sun and moon give him away and the discus takes his head, which becomes Rahu.
North India · Haridwar, Prayagraj, Nashik, Ujjain; Mandar, Banka district, BiharFolk
Two later attachments put the churning on the map. The Kumbh Mela tradition says drops of nectar fell at four places — Haridwar, Prayagraj, Nashik-Trimbak and Ujjain — as the pot was carried away, and the great bathing fairs are held there. At Mandar hill in Bihar's Banka district local belief holds that this is the very mountain used as the churning rod, and the Paapharni pond beside it is linked to the nectar.
What is different here:
Pure geography added to the plot; scholars regard the Kumbh link as a comparatively recent application of the legend.
The Vishnu Purana is the text in which the churning is worked out in full and is the version most summaries follow. It supplies the opening cause — Durvasa's garland thrown down by Indra's elephant, the curse, and Shri's disappearance into the waters — before the churning itself, and its list of what the sea yields is one of several.
What is different here:
Gives the Durvasa-curse trigger in full; the number and order of treasures differ from the Bhagavata; the epic tellings in the Mahabharata and Ramayana differ again.