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
✕ devotion
booncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancepridetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formcosmogonyhomecominglingapoisonrebirthriveratonement
Tradition: All traditions · clear
In stone and bronze · 2 tellings · contested
Dattatreya: the three natures in one son
The sage Atri and his wife Anasuya earn great merit through their conduct and austerity.
From the epics · 1 telling
Krishna's penance for a son
Jambavati asks Krishna for a son like Pradyumna; Krishna spends six months in austerities under the sage Upamanyu, and Shiva appears as Ardhanarishvara to grant the boy Samba, named after that form.
Legend · 2 tellings · contested
Vishnu and Rama as worshippers of Shiva
Vishnu offers a thousand lotuses and his own eye at Kashi; Rama raises a sand linga at Rameswaram before crossing to Lanka; the full record is I-10 in the interactions file.