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
✕ linga
devotionbooncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancepridetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formcosmogonyhomecomingpoisonrebirthriveratonement
Tradition: Shaiva · clear
Legend · 2 tellings · contested
Markandeya and the noose of death
The childless sage Mrikandu is offered by Shiva a choice: a good son who dies at sixteen or a fool who lives long.
Temple legend · 1 telling · contested
Shiva under the banyan at Thrissur
Parashurama asks Varuna for land and the sea draws back to make Kerala.
Temple legend · 2 tellings · contested
The antelope's horn at Pashupatinath
Shiva and Parvati, tired of the gods, wander the Kathmandu valley as an antelope and a doe.
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.