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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

Temple legend · 4 tellings · contested

How Vishnu and Shiva became one body

Vishnu and Shiva merge into a single form — to end a dispute among devotees, to kill Guhasura whom neither could kill alone, or at Parvati's prayer to reconcile two serpent kings. Shiva is the right half, Vishnu the left, in every telling.

Vishnu, Shiva, Harihara, Sankaranarayana

Pan-India South India West India