Stories 3

All kinds Origin Legend Local story Folk tale From the epics Festival story Temple legend In stone and bronze How a tradition frames it

Everywhere Pan-India 240 South India 81 West India 37 East India 37 North India 28 The Himalaya 17 Northeast India 8 Southeast Asia 6 Central India 5 Sri Lanka 1

curse sacrifice devotion pride boon creation disguise marriage test birth supremacy bargain death fire healing penance rescue pilgrimage river craft festival dance gift rivalry earth emanation friendship night desire fear

Tradition: Buddhist · clear

From the epics · 6 tellings · contested

King Shibi, the hawk and the dove

King Ushinara holds a sacrifice that rivals Indra's.

Shibi, Agni, Indra

Pan-India South India Southeast Asia

From the epics · 2 tellings · contested

Sarasvata keeps the Vedas through the drought

The river's foster son alone remembers the Vedas after a twelve-year drought and teaches sixty thousand sages.

Saraswati, Sarasvata, Dadhichi, Indra

Pan-India

From the epics · 2 tellings · contested

The Yaksha's questions

Dharma, disguised as a Yaksha guarding a lake, strikes down four Pandavas and restores them when Yudhishthira answers his questions and chooses fairly.

Yudhishthira, Yama, Arjuna, Bhima

Pan-India