Stories 2
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
✕ unity
devotionbooncreationdisguisesupremacycursemarriagepenancepridetestdancepilgrimagesacrificebirthemanationfirebeheadingdemon slayingdesireiconographyausteritychurningcombined formcosmogonyhomecominglingapoisonrebirthriveratonement
How a tradition frames it · 1 telling · contested
All as one: the Smarta Panchayatana
The Smarta school worships five deities — Ganesha, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu and Surya, with Kartikeya added in the south — set in a quincunx around the worshipper's chosen one, as equal forms of the one Brahman; tradition credits Adi Shankara, though the practice is older.
In stone and bronze · 1 telling · contested
The triple shrine of Phnom Bok
A Khmer hilltop temple of Yasovarman I with three towers for Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma — a rare true Trimurti set — within a Cambodian tradition whose main composite cult was Harihara.