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 104
South India 67
West India 30
East India 22
North India 15
The Himalaya 12
Northeast India 5
Southeast Asia 4
Central India 4
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Tradition: Folk · clear
Folk tale · 1 telling
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.
Festival story · 2 tellings
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.
Legend · 4 tellings · contested
Shiva drinks the poison
Gods and demons churn the ocean of milk for the nectar.