Stories 12
Calling Bhairav into the room
In the Kumaoni jagar, singers call a deity into a gathering through song and drum until a medium falls into trance; Bhairav's tales are among those sung.
Daksha's sacrifice and the death of Sati
At a gathering Shiva stays seated when Daksha enters; Daksha reads it as contempt.
Dattatreya: the three natures in one son
The sage Atri and his wife Anasuya earn great merit through their conduct and austerity.
Ganga comes down through Shiva's hair
King Sagara's sixty thousand sons, hunting his stolen sacrificial horse, accuse the sage Kapila and are burnt to ash by his glance.
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.
Nanda goes to Kailash as a bride
Every twelve years Garhwal and Kumaon walk the mountain goddess Nanda three weeks from her mother's home to Shiva's Kailash as a young bride.
Shiva drinks the poison
Gods and demons churn the ocean of milk for the nectar.
The Pandavas and the bull of Kedar
After Kurukshetra the Pandavas seek Shiva to be cleansed of the killing of kin.
The antelope's horn at Pashupatinath
Shiva and Parvati, tired of the gods, wander the Kathmandu valley as an antelope and a doe.
The five faces and the five acts
Shiva's eternal form is pictured with five faces turned to the quarters and upward.
The secret of immortality in the ice cave
Parvati asks Shiva for the secret of never dying.
Why the night of Shiva is kept
A hunter named Gurudruha, or Lubdhaka, is caught in the forest by night and climbs a bilva tree to wait for game.