In the Dvapara age Adishesha bars Vayu from Vishnu's door. Vishnu has Shesha encircle the Ananda hill, a northern offshoot of Meru, while Vayu blows. The world trembles; Brahma, Indra and the gods ask Shesha to concede, and when he lets go he and the hill are blown to the Swarnamukhi. Consoled by Brahma, he becomes Seshadri: hood at Venkatadri (Venkateswara), middle at Ahobilam (Narasimha), tail at Srisailam (Mallikarjuna).
Shesha blocks the wind with his hoods for a long time. Vayu draws all the air of the earth for one push, leaving creatures breathless. Narada tells Shesha that all know who is strong but all will die unless he lets the mountain shake; Shesha, thinking Narayana would not be pleased, loosens his grip and rocks of Meru fall where Tirumala now is. Another variant has Vayu give way first and blow the peak off when Shesha lifts his hoods.
What is different here:
No quarrel at Vaikuntha's door and no test set by Vishnu; Narada, not Brahma, persuades Shesha; fragments of Meru fall rather than a whole hill with the serpent.
Sages set the challenge: Adishesha clings to Meru, Vayu must free it. Adishesha succeeds. Vayu in anger stops the flow of air and all beings faint; the sages persuade him to release it, and the sudden blast throws the mountain top with Adishesha's head to earth in three places with flesh and blood. The red hill of Tiruchengode (Chengodu) is one; it is also Nagamalai, with a 60-foot serpent carved on it, and Shiva is worshipped there as Ardhanarishvara.
What is different here:
Shesha wins the contest; Vayu withholds the world's air; the serpent is wounded and the hill is red with his blood; a Shiva site, not a Vishnu one.
South India · Srikalahasti; Tiruchirappalli; Trincomalee (Sri Lanka)Shaiva
Adishesha coils around Kailasa and Vayu raises a whirlwind to dislodge him. Eight peaks break off and fall at eight places, among them Trincomalee, Srikalahasti and the rock of Tiruchirappalli; five more names are listed. At Srikalahasti Vayu is also said to have worshipped a camphor linga for thousands of years and won three boons from Shiva: to be everywhere, to be in every being as breath, and to have the linga named the Vayu Linga.
What is different here:
The mountain is Kailasa, not Meru; eight pieces, not one or three; no judge and no winner named. Adds Vayu's penance at Srikalahasti.
Vayu and Vasuki quarrel. Vasuki winds himself round Mahameru so tightly that the wind cannot enter. Vayu becomes a cyclone and the world shakes; the gods go with Brahma and Shiva to Vishnu, who orders both to stop. As Vasuki unwinds one coil from the three-peaked spur Trikuta, Vayu breaks it off and drops it in the southern sea, and Vishvakarma builds Lanka on it.
What is different here:
The serpent is Vasuki, not Shesha; Vishnu stops the quarrel; the piece becomes Lanka in the sea, not a hill of the south. A popular Vaishnava retelling adds two Gandharvas who start the argument and has Brahma make peace.