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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

Temple legend · 4 tellings · contested

How Vishnu and Shiva became one body

Vishnu and Shiva merge into a single form — to end a dispute among devotees, to kill Guhasura whom neither could kill alone, or at Parvati's prayer to reconcile two serpent kings. Shiva is the right half, Vishnu the left, in every telling.

Vishnu, Shiva, Harihara, Sankaranarayana

Pan-India South India West India