Stories 7
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 95
South India 67
West India 30
East India 22
North India 15
The Himalaya 12
Northeast India 5
Southeast Asia 4
Central India 4
devotionbooncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancepridetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formcosmogonyhomecominglingapoisonrebirthriveratonement
Tradition: Shaiva · clear
Origin · 2 tellings · contested
Brahma born from Shiva's right side
Shiva alone exists before the world.
Origin · 5 tellings · contested
How Shiva became half woman
Brahma makes a world of male beings that cannot multiply.
Origin · 1 telling · contested
Rudra becomes the one Lord
A late Upanishad of the Black Yajurveda, in six chapters, takes up Rudra.
Origin · 6 tellings · contested
Saraswati: daughter, consort, or both
Brahma's body splits into a male and a female half.
Origin · 6 tellings · contested
The birth of Ganesha
Parvati wants a guard of her own and shapes a boy from the paste on her body.
Origin · 4 tellings · contested
The birth of Kartikeya
Taraka can be killed only by a son of Shiva.
Origin · 6 tellings · contested
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.