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 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
✕ speech
cursesacrificedevotionpridebooncreationdisguisemarriagetestbirthsupremacybargaindeathfirehealingpenancerescuepilgrimagerivercraftfestivaldancegiftrivalryearthemanationfriendshipnightdesirefear
From the epics · 1 telling
Saraswati on Kumbhakarna's tongue
Brahma is about to grant Kumbhakarna a boon for his austerities.
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 Devi Sukta: Vac describes herself
A hymn portrait of Vac from Rigveda 10.125, with what Rigveda 10.71, 8.100 and 1.164 say of her.
Legend · 1 telling · contested
The gods win Vac from the Asuras
The gods tell Yajna, the Sacrifice, to beckon Vac.
Legend · 6 tellings · contested
Tvashtri, his three-headed son and the word said wrong
Indra kills Tvashtri's three-headed son; Tvashtri shuts Indra out of his Soma, and from the dregs thrown in the fire raises Vritra with a curse that comes out the wrong way round.
Legend · 4 tellings · contested
Vayu wins the first cup of Soma
Why the first Soma cup of the morning pressing belongs to Vayu and only a quarter of it to Indra.