Stories 2
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
✕ earth
cursesacrificedevotionpridebooncreationdisguisemarriagetestbirthsupremacybargaindeathfirehealingpenancerescuepilgrimagerivercraftfestivaldancegiftrivalryemanationfriendshipnightdesirefear
Tradition: Vaishnava · clear
Legend · 5 tellings · contested
Prithu milks the Earth
King Prithu, son of Vena, makes the Earth yield grain by milking her as a cow; told as a cosmic milking in the Atharvaveda, a friendly one in the Mahabharata and a chase in the Puranas.
Legend · 6 tellings · contested
The boar beyond the seven hills
A boar keeps the wealth of the Asuras beyond seven hills. Vishnu, the sacrifice hidden in the earth, tells Indra of it; Indra shoots through the hills with a bunch of darbha grass and Vishnu carries the spoil to the gods. In the Puranas the boar is Vishnu himself, who lifts the earth and kills Hiranyaksha.