Stories 8
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
✕ rivalry
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From the epics · 2 tellings · contested
Angiras takes Agni's place
Yudhishthira asks Markandeya why Angiras once carried the offerings as fire.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
Brihaspati takes the form of Shukra
Shukra leaves the defeated Asuras to win mantras from Shiva that Brihaspati does not have.
Origin · 4 tellings · contested
Diti's vow and the birth of the Maruts
Diti's sons are killed by the gods.
From the epics · 1 telling · contested
Madri calls the Ashvins: the birth of Nakula and Sahadeva
Madri, childless, asks Pandu to ask Kunti to share her invocation.
From the epics · 1 telling
Saraswati carries Vasishtha and is cursed to run with blood
Vishvamitra orders the river Sarasvati to bring Vasishtha to him so that he can kill him.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
The Adityas and the Angirases race to heaven
The Adityas outwit the Angirases with a same-day Soma sacrifice, make them their priests, and pay them with the sun as a white horse.
Legend · 3 tellings · contested
The Ribhus make four cups from one
Sent by the gods through Agni, three mortal brothers turn Tvashtri's single cup into four and win a share of Soma.
Legend · 1 telling · contested
The gods win Vac from the Asuras
The gods tell Yajna, the Sacrifice, to beckon Vac.