The oldest hymns of India praise Indra, Agni and Rudra. The stories most of us grew up with are about Shiva, Vishnu and the Goddess. They are one tradition, many centuries apart. This page follows each god across the gap.
Agni never turned into another god. He is still Agni in the Puranas and still Agni today. What changed is his rank.
Read what became of AgniIndra is still Indra in the Puranas. He keeps his name, his thunderbolt and his throne. What he loses is his place at the top.
Read what became of IndraRudra became Shiva. No other god changed so much between the Vedas and the Puranas, and the change can be followed text by text.
Read what became of Rudra
Shaiva
The great god of Kailash, who ends…Shiva
Some of the best-loved gods have no hymn of their own in the Vedas. Their pages say where they came from.
Ganapatya
Remover of obstacles, lord of beginningsGanesha
The Vedas do not know Ganesha. He has no hymn there and no story, and the elephant-headed god who is worshipped first today appears many centuries after the last Vedic book was composed.
Read the Vedic roots of Ganesha