Stories 30
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.
Andhaka, the blind demon who wanted his mother
Parvati in play covers Shiva's eyes and the worlds go dark.
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.
Dattatreya: the three natures in one son
The sage Atri and his wife Anasuya earn great merit through their conduct and austerity.
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.
Gautama's penance and the Godavari
The sage Gautama and his wife Ahalya live on Brahmagiri in a long drought.
Ghushma's hundred and one lingas
The brahmin Sudharma and his wife Sudeha have no child.
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.
Kartik Purnima at Pushkar
The fair opens with the month of Kartik and closes on its full moon.
Parvati wins Shiva
Sati is reborn as the daughter of Himavat and Mena and grows up loving Shiva.
Parvati's festivals of the north-west
Hariyali Teej in Shravan, Kajari and Hartalika Teej in Bhadrapada mark Parvati's acceptance by Shiva after her long fast.
Pundalik's brick
Busy serving his parents when Krishna calls, Pundalik tosses him a brick to stand on; the god waits there still, hands on hips, as Vithoba of Pandharpur.
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.
Ravana lifts Kailash
Flying home in the Pushpaka after beating Kubera, Ravana is halted by Kailash.
Ravana loses the atmalinga
Ravana wins Shiva's own linga by fierce penance, to take home to Lanka.
Shrinathji from Govardhan to Nathdwara
Krishna's arm and then his face emerge from Govardhan hill; the image is carried away from Braj in 1672 and stops where its cart wheels sink in Mewar.
The Elephanta bust: Trimurti or Sadashiva?
A seven-metre three-faced bust fills the south wall of Elephanta's Cave 1.
The Pushkar sacrifice and Savitri's curse
Brahma kills the demon Vajranabha with his lotus-weapon.
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 demon of the Sahyadri and the Bhima river
A demon oppresses the gods and men from the Sahyadri hills.
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 five faces and the five acts
Shiva's eternal form is pictured with five faces turned to the quarters and upward.
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 moon's curse eased at Somnath
Chandra marries the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha, the lunar mansions.
The three cities burnt with one arrow
Taraka's three sons win from Brahma three flying cities of iron, silver and gold, built by Maya.
The three gods together on the Kailasa temple, Ellora
Genuine three-god scenes carved on Ellora's Kailasa: Lingodbhava with Brahma and Vishnu searching the pillar, Tripurantaka with Brahma as charioteer and Vishnu as arrow, and Harihara with Nandi and Garuda.
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.
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.
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.