Stories 2

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: Shaiva · clear

In stone and bronze · 3 tellings · contested

The silent teacher under the banyan

Shiva sits under a banyan tree facing south, one foot on the dwarf of ignorance.

Dakshinamurthy, Shiva, Matsyendranath, Parvati

North India Pan-India South India

In stone and bronze · 2 tellings · contested

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.

Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Kartikeya

South India