Stories 4
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 94
South India 66
West India 30
East India 22
North India 15
The Himalaya 12
Northeast India 5
Southeast Asia 4
Central India 4
✕ cosmogony
devotionbooncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancepridetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formhomecominglingapoisonrebirthriveratonement
Origin · 3 tellings · contested
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.
Origin · 2 tellings · contested
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.
Origin · 1 telling · contested
The three strides of the Vedic Vishnu
In the Rigveda Vishnu is a minor companion of Indra whose one great act is to pace out the cosmos in three steps.
How a tradition frames it · 1 telling · contested
Vishnu created from Shiva's left side
The Shiva Purana has Shiva bring Vishnu forth from the left of his body as the embodiment of sattva and assign him the work of preservation.