Stories 6
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
✕ pride
devotionbooncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formcosmogonyhomecominglingapoisonrebirthriveratonement
Tradition: Shaiva · clear
Local story · 1 telling · contested
Nakkeerar disputes Shiva's poem
The Pandya king wonders whether the scent of a woman's hair is natural or from perfume, and offers gold for the verse that settles it.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
Ravana lifts Kailash
Flying home in the Pushpaka after beating Kubera, Ravana is halted by Kailash.
Legend · 2 tellings · contested
The boon that had a loophole: Hiranyakashipu
Hiranyakashipu performs long austerities to win power over the gods.
Legend · 8 tellings · contested
The fifth head and the skull that would not fall
Brahma grows a fifth head, and with it pride or a false word.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
The ketaki lie and the curse of no worship
Brahma and Vishnu argue over which of them is greater.
Temple legend · 1 telling · contested
Tirupattur: Brahma rewrites his own fate
Brahma grows proud and Shiva takes away his fifth head and his power to create.