Stories 164
A day of Brahma
One day of Brahma is a kalpa of 4.32 billion human years, and his night is as long.
Aiyanar, the horseman at the village edge
The Tamil village guardian on horseback was absorbed over the medieval centuries into Shasta, the son of Shiva and Mohini, and the Sanskritising continues today.
All as one: the Smarta Panchayatana
The Smarta school worships five deities — Ganesha, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu and Surya, with Kartikeya added in the south — set in a quincunx around the worshipper's chosen one, as equal forms of the one Brahman; tradition credits Adi Shankara, though the practice is older.
Anasuya tests the three gods
Narada provokes the three consorts into sending their husbands to test Anasuya's virtue; she turns them into infants and nurses them; the consorts beg for their husbands and she asks for sons — one three-headed Dattatreya, or three sons.
Andhaka, the blind demon who wanted his mother
Parvati in play covers Shiva's eyes and the worlds go dark.
Annamacharya's copper-plate songs
The Telugu poet Annamacharya sang more than thirty thousand songs to Venkateswara of Tirumala; engraved on copper, they lay forgotten in a temple vault until 1922.
Ayyappa and his companion Vavar
Kerala's Ayyappa, born of Shiva and Mohini, grows up in Pandalam, defeats the demoness Mahishi and keeps a Muslim companion whose mosque still faces his temple at Erumely.
Baka Brahma's error and Sahampati's plea
In the Pali canon Brahma is a class of deities, not a creator: Baka Brahma is shown his delusion, and Brahma Sahampati begs the Buddha to teach.
Bhrigu tests the three gods
Sages on the Saraswati bank ask Bhrigu to find which god is greatest.
Bhrigu tests the three gods
Sages send Bhrigu to find out which god is greatest. Brahma swallows his anger, Shiva raises his trident until his consort calms him, and Vishnu apologises after being kicked; the sages choose Vishnu. Temple and popular tellings add Lakshmi's departure, the Tirumala descent and curses on Brahma and Shiva.
Bhrigu's kick and the coming of Srinivasa
The sage Bhrigu tests the three gods and kicks the reclining Vishnu; in the Bhagavata Vishnu's humility settles the matter, while the Tirumala tradition adds Lakshmi's departure to Kolhapur and Vishnu's descent as Srinivasa, who marries Padmavati on borrowed money.
Brahm Baba of Mithila, a false friend
Every Maithil village keeps a Brahma Sthan, a peepal or banyan to the west.
Brahma born from Shiva's right side
Shiva alone exists before the world.
Brahma drives Lingaraj's chariot
Brahma comes to Bhubaneswar for the coronation of Lingaraj.
Brahma is born in the golden egg
A golden egg forms in the waters and glows like the sun.
Brahma's fifth head and the skull that would not fall
Bhairava, born from Shiva's brow, cuts off Brahma's fifth head; the skull sticks to his hand and the sin of brahmin-killing follows him; he wanders as a beggar, kills Vishnu's gatekeeper, is fed blood from Vishnu's forehead, and is freed when the skull falls at Kashi.
Brahma, Sandhya and the curse on Kama
Brahma's mind-born daughter Sandhya is so beautiful that Kama tests his new arrows on the gathering.
Brahmotsavam, the festival of Brahma
Brahma is believed to have worshipped Venkateswara at Tirumala and to have conducted the first festival for him.
Calling Bhairav into the room
In the Kumaoni jagar, singers call a deity into a gathering through song and drum until a medium falls into trance; Bhairav's tales are among those sung.
Carrying Ganga water to Shiva in Shravan
In the monsoon month of Shravan devotees fetch Ganga water from Haridwar, Gaumukh, Gangotri or Sultanganj.
Chaitanya, the golden Krishna
Chaitanya of Nabadwip taught the maha-mantra and congregational chanting; Gaudiya Vaishnavas read Bhagavata 11.5.32 as foretelling him as Krishna in a fair form.
Daksha's sacrifice and the death of Sati
At a gathering Shiva stays seated when Daksha enters; Daksha reads it as contempt.
Dattatreya: the three natures in one son
The sage Atri and his wife Anasuya earn great merit through their conduct and austerity.
Five ways the Shaivas see him
The early Pashupatas, the first sectarian Shaivas, appear in the first centuries CE.
Four Vishnu stories behind Diwali
Rama's return in the north, Narakasura's death in the south and west, Lakshmi's wedding night in Puranic lore, and Bali's return in the Deccan and Gujarat.
Ganga comes down through Shiva's hair
King Sagara's sixty thousand sons, hunting his stolen sacrificial horse, accuse the sage Kapila and are burnt to ash by his glance.
Gautama's penance and the Godavari
The sage Gautama and his wife Ahalya live on Brahmagiri in a long drought.
Ghushma's hundred and one lingas
The brahmin Sudharma and his wife Sudeha have no child.
Hanuman as Shiva's own avatar
Shaiva texts and popular tellings say that when Vishnu chose to be born as Rama, Shiva chose to be born as Hanuman — his eleventh Rudra — to serve him; Vaishnava schools call Hanuman the son and incarnation of Vayu.
Harihara: Vishnu and Shiva in one body
Vishnu and Shiva are shown as one figure divided down the middle.
How Mahakal came to Ujjain
King Chandrasena of Ujjain is a devotee of Shiva and a friend of Shiva's attendant Manibhadra.
How Ranganatha came to face south at Srirangam
The Ranga Vimana rose from the churning, passed from Brahma to the kings of Ayodhya and from Rama to Vibhishana, and would not leave the Kaveri island.
How Shiva became half woman
Brahma makes a world of male beings that cannot multiply.
How Shri became Vishnu's inseparable consort
The Vedic Shri of prosperity rises from the churned ocean as Lakshmi, surveys every being and chooses Vishnu as her husband.
How Vishnu and Shiva became one body
Vishnu and Shiva merge into a single form — to end a dispute among devotees, to kill Guhasura whom neither could kill alone, or at Parvati's prayer to reconcile two serpent kings. Shiva is the right half, Vishnu the left, in every telling.
How scholars explain Shiva's rise
Scholars treat the Shiva of today as a figure merged from several older gods rather than one continuous cult.
Jagannath and the Sabara chief
Tradition says Vishnu was first worshipped in the Odisha forest as the blue stone Nilamadhava by the Sabara chief Viswavasu, before returning as the wooden Jagannath; scholars argue over what that means.
Kama burnt by the third eye
Taraka can die only to a son of Shiva, and Shiva sits in grief and meditation after Sati.
Kamban's Rama stands above the three
In the Tamil Ramavataram Rama is divine from the start, yet the poem sets him above Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva rather than inside the triad as an avatar.
Kanakadasa's window at Udupi
Turned away from the Udupi temple, the shepherd-saint Kanakadasa sang outside until the image turned to face him through a gap in the wall.
Kanakadasa's window at Udupi
Madhva finds the Krishna image in a lump of clay; the low-caste singer Kanakadasa, barred from the temple, sees the god turn west through a crack that became the Kanakana Kindi.
Kannappa gives his eyes
Thinnan, a hunter chief, finds a linga on the Kalahasti hill and is seized by love for it.
Kartik Purnima at Pushkar
The fair opens with the month of Kartik and closes on its full moon.
Krishna alone: Sankardev's Assam
Sankardev's Ekasarana keeps only Krishna as an object of worship and drops Shiva and Brahma from the cult, sung through the Kirtan Ghosha.
Krishna's penance for a son
Jambavati asks Krishna for a son like Pradyumna; Krishna spends six months in austerities under the sage Upamanyu, and Shiva appears as Ardhanarishvara to grant the boy Samba, named after that form.
Kumbakonam: Brahma loses the Vedas and wins them back
Brahma boasts that he alone can create.
Lakshmi as the badri tree at Badrinath
Vishnu meditates in the Himalaya while Lakshmi shelters him as a badri tree; the sages Nara and Narayana choose the site; Shankara recovers the image from the hot spring.
Lingo frees the gods from Mahadeo's cave
Shiva as Mahadeo seals the Gond gods in a cave; Parvati searches for them; the hero Lingo lifts the stone, frees them and founds Gond society.
Madhu and Kaitabha
Two demons born from Vishnu's ear-wax threaten Brahma and steal the Vedas; who saves the day depends on the sect — Vishnu as Hayagriva in the epic line, or the Goddess who must first leave Vishnu's body in the Devi Mahatmya.
Mahabali comes home for Onam
Kerala remembers Bali as the just king pushed under the earth by Vishnu's dwarf, who returns each year at harvest to see his people.
Mahishasura's boon: no man shall kill him
The buffalo demon Mahishasura wins a boon that no man can kill him.
Manasa and the merchant who would not bow
Shiva's neglected daughter, the snake goddess Manasa, kills a Shaiva merchant's sons one by one until his daughter-in-law wins them back and he yields.
Markandeya and the noose of death
The childless sage Mrikandu is offered by Shiva a choice: a good son who dies at sixteen or a fool who lives long.
Mohini and the demon who burned himself
A demon wins from Shiva the power to destroy whoever he touches on the head and turns on the giver; Vishnu, as Mohini or as a young brahmachari, tricks him into testing the boon on himself.
Mohini, the self-burning demon and the birth of Ayyappa
Vishnu as the enchantress Mohini dances a demon into touching his own head, and in Kerala tradition bears Shiva's son Ayyappa; the full record is I-4 in the interactions file.
Nakkeerar disputes Shiva's poem
The Pandya king wonders whether the scent of a woman's hair is natural or from perfume, and offers gold for the verse that settles it.
Nanda goes to Kailash as a bride
Every twelve years Garhwal and Kumaon walk the mountain goddess Nanda three weeks from her mother's home to Shiva's Kailash as a young bride.
Nanga Baigin nails down the earth
The new earth wobbles like mud until Bhagavan sends for Nanga Baiga, whose wife drives nails into its four corners.
Nila Madhava and the unfinished images of Puri
King Indradyumna's priest finds Nila Madhava worshipped by a Sabara chief; the image vanishes; new images are carved from a sea-borne log and left unfinished when the carver is disturbed.
One being, three functions: the Trimurti idea
The Maitri Upanishad names Brahma, Rudra and Vishnu together as portions of one being, matched to the three gunas.
Parvati wins Shiva
Sati is reborn as the daughter of Himavat and Mena and grows up loving Shiva.
Parvati's festivals of the north-west
Hariyali Teej in Shravan, Kajari and Hartalika Teej in Bhadrapada mark Parvati's acceptance by Shiva after her long fast.
Parvati's penance on the hill of fire
After the quarrel of Brahma and Vishnu the pillar of fire cools into the red hill of Arunachala.
Phra Phrom at the Erawan Shrine
Accidents and delays trouble the building of the Erawan Hotel in Bangkok.
Prahlada and the man-lion
The asura boy Prahlada survives his father's every attempt to kill him; Vishnu bursts from a pillar as Narasimha and kills Hiranyakashipu in a way that slips past every clause of his boon.
Pundalik's brick
Busy serving his parents when Krishna calls, Pundalik tosses him a brick to stand on; the god waits there still, hands on hips, as Vithoba of Pandharpur.
Purusha and Narayana on the waters
The cosmic person of the Purusha Sukta and the Narayana who rests on the waters are fused into Vishnu's cosmic identity, pictured as Anantashayana.
Rama in Thailand and Cambodia
Thailand's Ramakien makes Phra Ram an incarnation of Phra Narai and a Bodhisatta; Cambodia's Reamker reads Preah Ream almost as a mortal through a Theravada lens.
Rama installs the linga at Rameswaram
Rama worships Shiva as a linga on the island of Rameswaram — before the bridge in the Ramayana, or after Ravana's death to expiate the killing of a brahmin in temple tradition, where Sita's sand linga and Hanuman's linga from Kailasa stand side by side.
Rama the monk and Krishna the cousin
Jain tellings keep Rama and Krishna as great men in a fixed roster of sixty-three: Lakshmana kills Ravana, Rama becomes a monk, and Krishna is Neminatha's cousin.
Rama's linga at Rameswaram
Rama wishes to worship Shiva on the island before crossing to Lanka, or after killing Ravana, to be cleansed of killing a brahmin.
Ravana lifts Kailash
Flying home in the Pushpaka after beating Kubera, Ravana is halted by Kailash.
Ravana loses the atmalinga
Ravana wins Shiva's own linga by fierce penance, to take home to Lanka.
Ravana's boon at Gokarna
Ravana and his brothers Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana perform austerities at Gokarna for ten thousand years.
Rudra becomes the one Lord
A late Upanishad of the Black Yajurveda, in six chapters, takes up Rudra.
Rudra, the howling archer of the Rigveda
The Rigveda addresses Rudra in three whole hymns and mentions him about seventy-five times.
Sankardev's Krishna without an image
Sankardev's Assamese Vaishnavism worships Krishna alone through the divine name and the Bhagavata, and in its strictest order sets a book, not an image, on the altar.
Saraswati's forty-eight letters found the Madurai Sangam
Saraswati lingers on the way to bathe in the Ganga and arrives late.
Saraswati: daughter, consort, or both
Brahma's body splits into a male and a female half.
Shiva as great time
Shiva is named Mahakala, great time, the one beyond time who ends all things.
Shiva carries earth for an old woman's puttu
The Vaigai floods and the Pandya king orders every household to repair a stretch of the bund.
Shiva drinks the poison
Gods and demons churn the ocean of milk for the nectar.
Shiva takes up the plough
Rameswar Bhattacharya's 18th-century Bengali poem makes Shiva an illiterate, penniless villager who has to farm to feed his family.
Shiva the begging farmer of the Gajan
At Bengal's Chaitra Gajan devotees become Shiva and his ganas, act out his marriage and beg from house to house; the god is a poor householder scolded by his wife.
Shiva under Kali's feet
Bengal's Kali stands on a corpse-like Shiva: without Shakti he is shava, a body; a Howrah folk dance plays the scene.
Shiva under the banyan at Thrissur
Parashurama asks Varuna for land and the sea draws back to make Kerala.
Shiva's own city
Kashi is held to stand on the point of Shiva's trident, apart from the earth.
Shiva's sixty-four games in Madurai
The Tamil Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam turns Shiva into Madurai's own god, who walks into the city in disguise across the reigns of fifty-two Pandya kings.
Shrinathji from Govardhan to Nathdwara
Krishna's arm and then his face emerge from Govardhan hill; the image is carried away from Braj in 1672 and stops where its cart wheels sink in Mewar.
Singbonga and the clay-divers
The Munda sun god sends a tortoise, a crab and an earthworm to fetch clay from under the waters; the smallest succeeds and the earth is made.
Thakur Jiu and the two birds
The Santal creator makes two water-birds over the primal sea; from their eggs come the first man and woman, and no Puranic god appears.
The Brahmaputra, son of Brahma
Brahma sees Amogha, wife of the sage Shantanu, and desires her.
The Elephanta bust: Trimurti or Sadashiva?
A seven-metre three-faced bust fills the south wall of Elephanta's Cave 1.
The Pandavas and the bull of Kedar
After Kurukshetra the Pandavas seek Shiva to be cleansed of the killing of kin.
The Puranas played till dawn
Coastal Karnataka's Yakshagana restages epic and Puranic episodes as night-long prasangas; Bhasmasura and Mohini is one of its favourites.
The Pushkar sacrifice and Savitri's curse
Brahma kills the demon Vajranabha with his lotus-weapon.
The Rama found in an anthill
A tribal woman finds Rama's images in an anthill on the Godavari; a tax official builds the temple with state money and is jailed for it.
The Sharanas' Shiva of the meeting rivers
Basavanna and the Kannada vachana poets addressed Shiva as their own personal lord, rejecting temple, caste and ritual, with the body itself as the shrine.
The antelope's horn at Pashupatinath
Shiva and Parvati, tired of the gods, wander the Kathmandu valley as an antelope and a doe.
The birth of Ayyappa
Brahma's boon to Mahishi — that only a child of Vishnu and Shiva can kill her — forces Vishnu to take the Mohini form; Shiva's desire for Mohini yields a son, found and raised by the king of Pandalam, who kills Mahishi and takes his seat at Sabarimala.
The birth of Ganesha
Parvati wants a guard of her own and shapes a boy from the paste on her body.
The birth of Kartikeya
Taraka can be killed only by a son of Shiva.
The boar Shiva sent to earth
A piglet raised by Parvati in Shiva's garden grows wild; instead of killing it Shiva sends it down to protect people, and it becomes the Tulu guardian Panjurli.
The boon that had a loophole: Hiranyakashipu
Hiranyakashipu performs long austerities to win power over the gods.
The burning of the three cities
The gods build Shiva a cosmic chariot with Brahma as charioteer and Vishnu as the arrow to destroy the three cities of Taraka's sons; the Shaiva prelude has Vishnu send a heretical teacher to strip the cities of merit, while the Bhagavata has Vishnu as a cow and Brahma as a calf drink the demons' reviving well dry.
The chariot festival of Puri
Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra ride three chariots to the Gundicha temple, stay seven days and return in the Bahuda Yatra.
The churning of the ocean of milk
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.
The cow that milked a stone
A milkman's cow leaves the herd each day and lets her milk fall on a stone in the forest.
The dance at Tillai and the contest with Kali
Two sages, the serpent Patanjali and the tiger-footed Vyaghrapada, ask to see Shiva's dance.
The day the gate of Vaikuntha opens
On the bright eleventh of Dhanu the gate of Vaikuntha is believed to open; Srirangam's Paramapada Vasal and Tirumala's Vaikunta Dvaram are passed through, and the Padma Purana tells of the demon Mura and the power named Ekadashi.
The demon of the Sahyadri and the Bhima river
A demon oppresses the gods and men from the Sahyadri hills.
The demon who could burn with a touch
A demon worships Shiva with terrible austerities, offering pieces of his own body.
The earring in Vishnu's well
Vishnu comes to Kashi and digs a pit with his discus.
The fifth head and the skull that would not fall
Brahma grows a fifth head, and with it pride or a false word.
The fish that warned the Bhils
A fish warns a brother and sister of a flood; afterwards Bhagwan, or in one telling Rama, sends them to repeople the world.
The five faces and the five acts
Shiva's eternal form is pictured with five faces turned to the quarters and upward.
The gatekeepers who chose three hostile births
Vaikuntha's doorkeepers bar the Kumaras, are cursed to be born away from Vishnu, and choose three lives as his enemies over seven as his devotees.
The girl with three breasts
The childless Pandya king Malayadhwaja and queen Kanchanamalai perform a sacrifice for a son.
The god who waited on a brick
Krishna came to Pundalik's door, was told to wait on a brick while the son served his parents, and stayed; the Varkari saints sang to him as Vitthal.
The golden womb and Prajapati
Before the gods there are only the primordial waters.
The horned figure on the Indus seal
Ernest Mackay finds a steatite seal at Mohenjo-daro in 1928–29, dated about 2350–2000 BCE.
The hunter and Arjuna
In exile Arjuna does austerities in the Himalaya to win weapons for the coming war.
The image that came from Vaikuntha to Guruvayur
An image made by Vishnu himself passes from Brahma to King Sutapas to Uddhava, who has Brihaspati and Vayu install it in Kerala after Dwarka sinks.
The ketaki lie and the curse of no worship
Brahma and Vishnu argue over which of them is greater.
The lamp on the hill
On the Karthigai full moon, when the Krittika star rides with the moon, Tamil homes are lined with clay lamps.
The longest night: Arudra and Thiruvathira
In Margazhi, when the full moon stands with the Thiruvathirai star, the year's longest night is kept for Shiva.
The lord of the single mango tree
Shiva is worshipped under a lone mango tree, which names the place Ekamra.
The lotus from Vishnu's navel
During the dissolution Vishnu lies on the serpent Ananta in the cosmic waters.
The lotus from Vishnu's navel
Vishnu enters the cosmic egg on the causal ocean and a lotus grows from his navel bearing Brahma, who will create the worlds.
The mind-born sons, Narada and Daksha
Brahma wishes for children and brings them out of his own mind.
The moon's curse eased at Somnath
Chandra marries the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha, the lunar mansions.
The pillar of light
Brahma and Vishnu quarrel over who is greater; Shiva appears as a column of fire without end; Brahma flies up as a gander and Vishnu digs down as a boar; Vishnu admits failure, Brahma lies with the ketaki as witness and is cursed. Tamil tradition roots the pillar at Tiruvannamalai.
The queen's tower at Sivasagar
The Ahom queen Ambika, wife of Siva Singha, has the Borpukhuri tank dug between 1731 and 1738.
The release of the elephant king
An elephant seized by a crocodile lifts a lotus and calls on Vishnu, who arrives on Garuda and frees both animal and captor with the discus.
The sacrifice in dwarf form wins the earth
In the Shatapatha Brahmana Vishnu, as the sacrifice itself, takes dwarf form and strides the earth back from the asuras for the gods.
The secret of immortality in the ice cave
Parvati asks Shiva for the secret of never dying.
The silent teacher under the banyan
Shiva sits under a banyan tree facing south, one foot on the dwarf of ignorance.
The sixty-four games of Shiva at Madurai
Indra, freed of a sin, worships a linga in a kadamba forest.
The so-called Trimurti cave at Mahabalipuram
Three Pallava shrines on one platform: Shiva in the centre, Vishnu on the right, and a disputed left shrine read as Brahma by Vogel but as Subrahmanya or Brahmasasta by later scholars; a Durga panel stands beside.
The spider, the snake and the elephant
A spider spins a web over the linga to shade it and, when a lamp sets the web alight, throws itself into the flame.
The three cities burnt with one arrow
Taraka's three sons win from Brahma three flying cities of iron, silver and gold, built by Maya.
The three gods together on the Kailasa temple, Ellora
Genuine three-god scenes carved on Ellora's Kailasa: Lingodbhava with Brahma and Vishnu searching the pillar, Tripurantaka with Brahma as charioteer and Vishnu as arrow, and Harihara with Nandi and Garuda.
The three strides of the Vedic Vishnu
In the Rigveda Vishnu is a minor companion of Indra whose one great act is to pace out the cosmos in three steps.
The tribal woman who found Rama at Bhadrachalam
Pokala Dhammakka finds the images of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana in an anthill; the revenue officer Ramadasu builds the temple in 1674 and is jailed for using the state's money.
The triple shrine of Phnom Bok
A Khmer hilltop temple of Yasovarman I with three towers for Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma — a rare true Trimurti set — within a Cambodian tradition whose main composite cult was Harihara.
The twelve pillars of light
Brahma and Vishnu quarrel over who is supreme.
Three faces of one Widhi
Balinese Hinduism reveres Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa as manifestations of the one ineffable Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, a formulation sharpened for state recognition.
Three gods in one guru
Maharashtra folds Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva into the single three-headed guru Dattatreya, whose cult grows from the Guru Charitra and is claimed by Nath and Mahanubhava lines.
Tirupattur: Brahma rewrites his own fate
Brahma grows proud and Shiva takes away his fifth head and his power to create.
Two origins of Padmanabhaswamy
Either Parashurama consecrated the reclining image, or Vishnu appeared to the sage Vilwamangalam as a mischievous boy and became a falling tree that took the shape of Ananta Padmanabha.
Two origins of the discus
The Sudarshana is either Shiva's gift at Kashi after Vishnu offers his own eye in place of a missing lotus, or Vishvakarma's work from the radiance shaved off the sun.
Vaikuntha, the abode without care
Vishnu's heavenly abode, its gatekeepers and general, and the two answers to where it lies.
Vamana and King Bali
The generous asura king Bali grants a dwarf brahmin three paces of land; two strides cover heaven and earth, Bali offers his own head for the third and is sent to rule Sutala with Vishnu as his doorkeeper.
Vishnu and Rama as worshippers of Shiva
Vishnu offers a thousand lotuses and his own eye at Kashi; Rama raises a sand linga at Rameswaram before crossing to Lanka; the full record is I-10 in the interactions file.
Vishnu cannot wake until the Goddess withdraws
In the Devi Mahatmya Vishnu lies in yogic sleep on the waters while Madhu and Kaitabha threaten Brahma; only when Brahma praises Mahamaya and she leaves Vishnu's body can he rise and fight.
Vishnu created from Shiva's left side
The Shiva Purana has Shiva bring Vishnu forth from the left of his body as the embodiment of sattva and assign him the work of preservation.
Vishnu's thousand lotuses and his eye
Vishnu pledges a thousand lotuses to Shiva at Kashi; finding one missing, he offers his own lotus-eye; Shiva restores the eye and gives him the Sudarshana discus. The day is kept as Vaikuntha Chaturdashi; a related Kashi charter has Vishnu's penance create Manikarnika.
Vishnumoorthi comes down in the Theyyam
In north Malabar the man-lion's killing of Hiranyakashipu is not read but danced, by a performer who is believed to become the god.
Vrinda's curse and the wedding of Tulsi
Vrinda, deceived by Vishnu in her husband Jalandhara's form, curses him and is reborn as the tulsi plant, whom Vishnu marries every year.
Who made whom: the Bhagavata's creation frame
Brahma, himself born from Vishnu's navel lotus, grows angry when his mind-born sons refuse to procreate; from between his brows a crying child is born and named Rudra, given eleven places, names and consorts, and told to stop creating and practise austerity.
Who made whom: the Devi Bhagavata's frame
The Goddess creates the three gods to do the work of creation, preservation and destruction, carries them to her island Manidvipa, turns them into women for a hundred years, and returns them with their consorts to their tasks.
Who made whom: the Shiva Purana's creation frame
Shiva creates Vishnu from the left of his body and Brahma from the right (through the lotus from Vishnu's navel), assigns creation, preservation and destruction, and stands beyond all three.
Why Brahma has four heads
Brahma's four heads face the four directions and stand for the four Vedas.
Why the night of Shiva is kept
A hunter named Gurudruha, or Lubdhaka, is caught in the forest by night and climbs a bilva tree to wait for game.