Stories 10
Tradition: Vaishnava · clear
Baka Brahma's error and Sahampati's plea
In the Pali canon Brahma is a class of deities, not a creator: Baka Brahma is shown his delusion, and Brahma Sahampati begs the Buddha to teach.
Chaitanya, the golden Krishna
Chaitanya of Nabadwip taught the maha-mantra and congregational chanting; Gaudiya Vaishnavas read Bhagavata 11.5.32 as foretelling him as Krishna in a fair form.
Hanuman as Shiva's own avatar
Shaiva texts and popular tellings say that when Vishnu chose to be born as Rama, Shiva chose to be born as Hanuman — his eleventh Rudra — to serve him; Vaishnava schools call Hanuman the son and incarnation of Vayu.
Kamban's Rama stands above the three
In the Tamil Ramavataram Rama is divine from the start, yet the poem sets him above Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva rather than inside the triad as an avatar.
Krishna alone: Sankardev's Assam
Sankardev's Ekasarana keeps only Krishna as an object of worship and drops Shiva and Brahma from the cult, sung through the Kirtan Ghosha.
One being, three functions: the Trimurti idea
The Maitri Upanishad names Brahma, Rudra and Vishnu together as portions of one being, matched to the three gunas.
Rama the monk and Krishna the cousin
Jain tellings keep Rama and Krishna as great men in a fixed roster of sixty-three: Lakshmana kills Ravana, Rama becomes a monk, and Krishna is Neminatha's cousin.
Sankardev's Krishna without an image
Sankardev's Assamese Vaishnavism worships Krishna alone through the divine name and the Bhagavata, and in its strictest order sets a book, not an image, on the altar.
Three gods in one guru
Maharashtra folds Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva into the single three-headed guru Dattatreya, whose cult grows from the Guru Charitra and is claimed by Nath and Mahanubhava lines.
Who made whom: the Bhagavata's creation frame
Brahma, himself born from Vishnu's navel lotus, grows angry when his mind-born sons refuse to procreate; from between his brows a crying child is born and named Rudra, given eleven places, names and consorts, and told to stop creating and practise austerity.