Stories 4
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
Temple legend · 1 telling · contested
Lakshmi as the badri tree at Badrinath
Vishnu meditates in the Himalaya while Lakshmi shelters him as a badri tree; the sages Nara and Narayana choose the site; Shankara recovers the image from the hot spring.
Temple legend · 2 tellings · contested
The Pandavas and the bull of Kedar
After Kurukshetra the Pandavas seek Shiva to be cleansed of the killing of kin.
Temple legend · 2 tellings · contested
The antelope's horn at Pashupatinath
Shiva and Parvati, tired of the gods, wander the Kathmandu valley as an antelope and a doe.
Temple legend · 2 tellings · contested
The secret of immortality in the ice cave
Parvati asks Shiva for the secret of never dying.