Stories 5
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 240
South India 81
West India 37
East India 37
North India 28
The Himalaya 17
Northeast India 8
Southeast Asia 6
Central India 5
Sri Lanka 1
✕ river
cursesacrificedevotionpridebooncreationdisguisemarriagetestbirthsupremacybargaindeathfirehealingpenancerescuepilgrimagecraftfestivaldancegiftrivalryearthemanationfriendshipnightdesirefear
From the epics · 1 telling
Arjuna and the Gandharva Angaraparna at the Ganga
A Gandharva king bars the Pandavas from the Ganga at night; Arjuna burns his chariot, spares him at Yudhishthira's word, and receives the seeing-science, horses and the advice to take a priest.
Legend · 4 tellings · contested
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.
From the epics · 1 telling
Saraswati carries Vasishtha and is cursed to run with blood
Vishvamitra orders the river Sarasvati to bring Vasishtha to him so that he can kill him.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
Saraswati the river
The Rigveda's hymn portrait of the river Sarasvati, and the Mahabharata's account of the river that vanishes and comes when called.
How a tradition frames it · 1 telling · contested
The quarrel of Saraswati, Ganga and Lakshmi
Saraswati, Ganga and Lakshmi live with Hari in Vaikuntha.