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 94
South India 66
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: Shakta · clear
Origin · 5 tellings · contested
How Shiva became half woman
Brahma makes a world of male beings that cannot multiply.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
Mahishasura's boon: no man shall kill him
The buffalo demon Mahishasura wins a boon that no man can kill him.
In stone and bronze · 1 telling
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.