Stories 61
Tradition: Vaishnava · clear
Aditi's earrings and the killing of Naraka
Naraka of Pragjyotisha steals Aditi's earrings; Krishna kills him and returns them, and Aditi blesses Krishna and Satyabhama.
Aditi's milk vow and the birth of Vamana
Aditi, grieving for her sons who have lost heaven to Bali, keeps the payovrata and Vishnu is born as her son Vamana.
Anasuya tests the three gods
Narada provokes the three consorts into sending their husbands to test Anasuya's virtue; she turns them into infants and nurses them; the consorts beg for their husbands and she asks for sons — one three-headed Dattatreya, or three sons.
Baka Brahma's error and Sahampati's plea
In the Pali canon Brahma is a class of deities, not a creator: Baka Brahma is shown his delusion, and Brahma Sahampati begs the Buddha to teach.
Bhrigu tests the three gods
Sages on the Saraswati bank ask Bhrigu to find which god is greatest.
Bhrigu tests the three gods
Sages send Bhrigu to find out which god is greatest. Brahma swallows his anger, Shiva raises his trident until his consort calms him, and Vishnu apologises after being kicked; the sages choose Vishnu. Temple and popular tellings add Lakshmi's departure, the Tirumala descent and curses on Brahma and Shiva.
Bhrigu's kick and the coming of Srinivasa
The sage Bhrigu tests the three gods and kicks the reclining Vishnu; in the Bhagavata Vishnu's humility settles the matter, while the Tirumala tradition adds Lakshmi's departure to Kolhapur and Vishnu's descent as Srinivasa, who marries Padmavati on borrowed money.
Brihaspati takes the form of Shukra
Shukra leaves the defeated Asuras to win mantras from Shiva that Brihaspati does not have.
Dadhyanch and the horse's head
Dadhyanch, son of Atharvan, knows the 'honey', the secret of making the sacrifice whole.
Daksha's sacrifice and the death of Sati
At a gathering Shiva stays seated when Daksha enters; Daksha reads it as contempt.
Diti's vow and the birth of the Maruts
Diti's sons are killed by the gods.
Four Vishnu stories behind Diwali
Rama's return in the north, Narakasura's death in the south and west, Lakshmi's wedding night in Puranic lore, and Bali's return in the Deccan and Gujarat.
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.
Hanuman as Shiva's own avatar
Shaiva texts and popular tellings say that when Vishnu chose to be born as Rama, Shiva chose to be born as Hanuman — his eleventh Rudra — to serve him; Vaishnava schools call Hanuman the son and incarnation of Vayu.
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.
How the Adityas became twelve
The Rigveda's six, seven or eight Adityas become the twelve months in the Brahmanas and twelve named sun-gods in the Puranas.
Indra slights Brihaspati
Indra sits enthroned with Shachi while all heaven praises him.
Kamban's Rama stands above the three
In the Tamil Ramavataram Rama is divine from the start, yet the poem sets him above Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva rather than inside the triad as an avatar.
Kanakadasa's window at Udupi
Turned away from the Udupi temple, the shepherd-saint Kanakadasa sang outside until the image turned to face him through a gap in the wall.
Krishna alone: Sankardev's Assam
Sankardev's Ekasarana keeps only Krishna as an object of worship and drops Shiva and Brahma from the cult, sung through the Kirtan Ghosha.
Madhu and Kaitabha
Two demons born from Vishnu's ear-wax threaten Brahma and steal the Vedas; who saves the day depends on the sect — Vishnu as Hayagriva in the epic line, or the Goddess who must first leave Vishnu's body in the Devi Mahatmya.
Mahabali comes home for Onam
Kerala remembers Bali as the just king pushed under the earth by Vishnu's dwarf, who returns each year at harvest to see his people.
Manu, the fish and the flood
A small fish comes into Manu's hands in his washing water.
Mohini and the demon who burned himself
A demon wins from Shiva the power to destroy whoever he touches on the head and turns on the giver; Vishnu, as Mohini or as a young brahmachari, tricks him into testing the boon on himself.
One being, three functions: the Trimurti idea
The Maitri Upanishad names Brahma, Rudra and Vishnu together as portions of one being, matched to the three gunas.
Prahlada and the man-lion
The asura boy Prahlada survives his father's every attempt to kill him; Vishnu bursts from a pillar as Narasimha and kills Hiranyakashipu in a way that slips past every clause of his boon.
Prajapati as the boar and the tortoise
In the beginning there is only water; Prajapati toils, wishing a world to be.
Prithu milks the Earth
King Prithu, son of Vena, makes the Earth yield grain by milking her as a cow; told as a cosmic milking in the Atharvaveda, a friendly one in the Mahabharata and a chase in the Puranas.
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.
Pushan the pathfinder, his goats and his gruel
The Rigveda's herdsman god who finds the lost and eats gruel, and the later explanations of the gruel by his lost teeth.
Rama the monk and Krishna the cousin
Jain tellings keep Rama and Krishna as great men in a fixed roster of sixty-three: Lakshmana kills Ravana, Rama becomes a monk, and Krishna is Neminatha's cousin.
Saraswati: daughter, consort, or both
Brahma's body splits into a male and a female half.
Shiva drinks the poison
Gods and demons churn the ocean of milk for the nectar.
Soma, Tara and the birth of Budha
Soma carries off Tara, wife of Brihaspati; gods and Asuras fight the Tarakamaya war; Brahma restores her; her son Budha is declared Soma's and founds the lunar line.
The Rama found in an anthill
A tribal woman finds Rama's images in an anthill on the Godavari; a tax official builds the temple with state money and is jailed for it.
The birth of Ayyappa
Brahma's boon to Mahishi — that only a child of Vishnu and Shiva can kill her — forces Vishnu to take the Mohini form; Shiva's desire for Mohini yields a son, found and raised by the king of Pandalam, who kills Mahishi and takes his seat at Sabarimala.
The birth of Ganesha
Parvati wants a guard of her own and shapes a boy from the paste on her body.
The boar beyond the seven hills
A boar keeps the wealth of the Asuras beyond seven hills. Vishnu, the sacrifice hidden in the earth, tells Indra of it; Indra shoots through the hills with a bunch of darbha grass and Vishnu carries the spoil to the gods. In the Puranas the boar is Vishnu himself, who lifts the earth and kills Hiranyaksha.
The boon that had a loophole: Hiranyakashipu
Hiranyakashipu performs long austerities to win power over the gods.
The burning of the three cities
The gods build Shiva a cosmic chariot with Brahma as charioteer and Vishnu as the arrow to destroy the three cities of Taraka's sons; the Shaiva prelude has Vishnu send a heretical teacher to strip the cities of merit, while the Bhagavata has Vishnu as a cow and Brahma as a calf drink the demons' reviving well dry.
The churning of the ocean of milk
Gods and demons churn the milk ocean with Mount Mandara on the tortoise's back; poison, treasures, Lakshmi and the nectar emerge, and Vishnu as Mohini keeps the nectar for the gods.
The demon who could burn with a touch
A demon worships Shiva with terrible austerities, offering pieces of his own body.
The dwarf who lay down and won the earth
The Asuras have won the earth and are dividing it. They grant the gods only as much as Vishnu, a dwarf who is the sacrifice, can lie on; the gods enclose him with the metres and win the whole earth by worship. The Bhagavata Purana tells the bargain as Vamana and King Bali.
The fish that warned the Bhils
A fish warns a brother and sister of a flood; afterwards Bhagwan, or in one telling Rama, sends them to repeople the world.
The gatekeepers who chose three hostile births
Vaikuntha's doorkeepers bar the Kumaras, are cursed to be born away from Vishnu, and choose three lives as his enemies over seven as his devotees.
The god who waited on a brick
Krishna came to Pundalik's door, was told to wait on a brick while the son served his parents, and stayed; the Varkari saints sang to him as Vitthal.
The lotus from Vishnu's navel
During the dissolution Vishnu lies on the serpent Ananta in the cosmic waters.
The lotus from Vishnu's navel
Vishnu enters the cosmic egg on the causal ocean and a lotus grows from his navel bearing Brahma, who will create the worlds.
The release of the elephant king
An elephant seized by a crocodile lifts a lotus and calls on Vishnu, who arrives on Garuda and frees both animal and captor with the discus.
The three strides of Vishnu, from the Rigveda to the dwarf and King Bali
In the Rigveda Vishnu's one deed is to take three steps that measure out the world and make room for people; the third step is a honeyed place out of sight. The Brahmanas turn the steps into earth, air and sky, the Ramayana gives them a dwarf and a king named Bali, and festivals in Kerala and the Deccan welcome that king home.
Three gods in one guru
Maharashtra folds Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva into the single three-headed guru Dattatreya, whose cult grows from the Guru Charitra and is claimed by Nath and Mahanubhava lines.
Tvashtri forges the thunderbolt
The Rigveda credits Tvashtri with making Indra's vajra and also remembers Indra taking his Soma; the Mahabharata has him build the Vajra from Dadhichi's bones.
Tvashtri, his three-headed son and the word said wrong
Indra kills Tvashtri's three-headed son; Tvashtri shuts Indra out of his Soma, and from the dregs thrown in the fire raises Vritra with a curse that comes out the wrong way round.
Two origins of the discus
The Sudarshana is either Shiva's gift at Kashi after Vishnu offers his own eye in place of a missing lotus, or Vishvakarma's work from the radiance shaved off the sun.
Vaikuntha, the abode without care
Vishnu's heavenly abode, its gatekeepers and general, and the two answers to where it lies.
Vamana and King Bali
The generous asura king Bali grants a dwarf brahmin three paces of land; two strides cover heaven and earth, Bali offers his own head for the third and is sent to rule Sutala with Vishnu as his doorkeeper.
Vishnumoorthi comes down in the Theyyam
In north Malabar the man-lion's killing of Hiranyakashipu is not read but danced, by a performer who is believed to become the god.
Vrinda's curse and the wedding of Tulsi
Vrinda, deceived by Vishnu in her husband Jalandhara's form, curses him and is reborn as the tulsi plant, whom Vishnu marries every year.
Who made whom: the Bhagavata's creation frame
Brahma, himself born from Vishnu's navel lotus, grows angry when his mind-born sons refuse to procreate; from between his brows a crying child is born and named Rudra, given eleven places, names and consorts, and told to stop creating and practise austerity.
Why Brahma has four heads
Brahma's four heads face the four directions and stand for the four Vedas.
Yama dines at Yamuna's house
Yamuna's long-refused invitation is accepted on Karttika bright second; Yama frees the hells for the day and grants her wish for all brothers and sisters.