Stories 7
Tradition: Folk · clear
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.
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.
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 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 demon who could burn with a touch
A demon worships Shiva with terrible austerities, offering pieces of his own body.
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.