Stories 5
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
✕ craft
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Legend · 1 telling · contested
Indra, Vishvakarma and the parade of ants
Indra will not let Vishvakarma stop building his palace until Vishnu, as a boy, shows him a column of ants that were each once an Indra.
Legend · 5 tellings · contested
Samjna and the shadow wife
The Sun's wife cannot bear his splendour.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
The Ribhus make four cups from one
Sent by the gods through Agni, three mortal brothers turn Tvashtri's single cup into four and win a share of Soma.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
Tvashtri forges the thunderbolt
The Rigveda credits Tvashtri with making Indra's vajra and also remembers Indra taking his Soma; the Mahabharata has him build the Vajra from Dadhichi's bones.
Legend · 1 telling
Vishvakarma builds Lanka
The Ramayana's Uttara Kanda says Vishvakarma built golden Lanka on Mount Trikuta at Indra's command and gave it first to three Rakshasa brothers; later it passed to Kubera.