Stories 3
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
✕ pilgrimage
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Tradition: Shaiva · clear
Temple legend · 3 tellings · contested
Rama installs the linga at Rameswaram
Rama worships Shiva as a linga on the island of Rameswaram — before the bridge in the Ramayana, or after Ravana's death to expiate the killing of a brahmin in temple tradition, where Sita's sand linga and Hanuman's linga from Kailasa stand side by side.
Temple legend · 2 tellings · contested
The secret of immortality in the ice cave
Parvati asks Shiva for the secret of never dying.
Temple legend · 2 tellings · contested
The twelve pillars of light
Brahma and Vishnu quarrel over who is supreme.