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 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
✕ craft
cursesacrificedevotionpridebooncreationdisguisemarriagetestbirthsupremacybargaindeathfirehealingpenancerescuepilgrimageriverfestivaldancegiftrivalryearthemanationfriendshipnightdesirefear
Tradition: Vaishnava · clear
Legend · 1 telling · contested
Indra, Vishvakarma and the parade of ants
Indra will not let Vishvakarma stop building his palace until Vishnu, as a boy, shows him a column of ants that were each once an Indra.
Temple legend · 4 tellings · contested
The carving of the images at Puri
An old carpenter carves the images of Jagannath from the log behind a closed door; in Puri's tradition the door is opened early and the images stay unfinished.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
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.