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 95
South India 67
West India 30
East India 22
North India 15
The Himalaya 12
Northeast India 5
Southeast Asia 4
Central India 4
✕ river
devotionbooncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancepridetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formcosmogonyhomecominglingapoisonrebirthatonement
Tradition: Shaiva · clear
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.
Temple legend · 1 telling · contested
Gautama's penance and the Godavari
The sage Gautama and his wife Ahalya live on Brahmagiri in a long drought.
Temple legend · 3 tellings · contested
The demon of the Sahyadri and the Bhima river
A demon oppresses the gods and men from the Sahyadri hills.