Stories 22
Brahm Baba of Mithila, a false friend
Every Maithil village keeps a Brahma Sthan, a peepal or banyan to the west.
Brahma drives Lingaraj's chariot
Brahma comes to Bhubaneswar for the coronation of Lingaraj.
Carrying Ganga water to Shiva in Shravan
In the monsoon month of Shravan devotees fetch Ganga water from Haridwar, Gaumukh, Gangotri or Sultanganj.
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.
How Shiva became half woman
Brahma makes a world of male beings that cannot multiply.
How Shri became Vishnu's inseparable consort
The Vedic Shri of prosperity rises from the churned ocean as Lakshmi, surveys every being and chooses Vishnu as her husband.
Jagannath and the Sabara chief
Tradition says Vishnu was first worshipped in the Odisha forest as the blue stone Nilamadhava by the Sabara chief Viswavasu, before returning as the wooden Jagannath; scholars argue over what that means.
Mahishasura's boon: no man shall kill him
The buffalo demon Mahishasura wins a boon that no man can kill him.
Manasa and the merchant who would not bow
Shiva's neglected daughter, the snake goddess Manasa, kills a Shaiva merchant's sons one by one until his daughter-in-law wins them back and he yields.
Nila Madhava and the unfinished images of Puri
King Indradyumna's priest finds Nila Madhava worshipped by a Sabara chief; the image vanishes; new images are carved from a sea-borne log and left unfinished when the carver is disturbed.
Purusha and Narayana on the waters
The cosmic person of the Purusha Sukta and the Narayana who rests on the waters are fused into Vishnu's cosmic identity, pictured as Anantashayana.
Ravana loses the atmalinga
Ravana wins Shiva's own linga by fierce penance, to take home to Lanka.
Shiva takes up the plough
Rameswar Bhattacharya's 18th-century Bengali poem makes Shiva an illiterate, penniless villager who has to farm to feed his family.
Shiva the begging farmer of the Gajan
At Bengal's Chaitra Gajan devotees become Shiva and his ganas, act out his marriage and beg from house to house; the god is a poor householder scolded by his wife.
Shiva under Kali's feet
Bengal's Kali stands on a corpse-like Shiva: without Shakti he is shava, a body; a Howrah folk dance plays the scene.
Singbonga and the clay-divers
The Munda sun god sends a tortoise, a crab and an earthworm to fetch clay from under the waters; the smallest succeeds and the earth is made.
Thakur Jiu and the two birds
The Santal creator makes two water-birds over the primal sea; from their eggs come the first man and woman, and no Puranic god appears.
The birth of Ganesha
Parvati wants a guard of her own and shapes a boy from the paste on her body.
The chariot festival of Puri
Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra ride three chariots to the Gundicha temple, stay seven days and return in the Bahuda Yatra.
The cow that milked a stone
A milkman's cow leaves the herd each day and lets her milk fall on a stone in the forest.
The fifth head and the skull that would not fall
Brahma grows a fifth head, and with it pride or a false word.
The lord of the single mango tree
Shiva is worshipped under a lone mango tree, which names the place Ekamra.