Begin with a name

The Pillar Without End

लिङ्गोद्भव

Brahmā and Viṣṇu argue over who is supreme. A pillar of fire splits the darkness between them — and neither can find its beginning or its end.

Brahmā creates and creates, but nothing he makes goes on to multiply. So he turns to Śiva — who appears as one body, half man and half woman — and from that body the Goddess steps out to give the world the power of the feminine.

Kāla Bhairava and the Fifth Head of Brahmā

कालभैरव

Brahmā's pride takes the shape of a fifth head. Śiva's anger takes the shape of Bhairava. And a skull that will not fall from his hand leads him across the world — to Kāśī.

Nārada and the Monkey Face

नारदमोह

Kāma's arrows cannot touch Nārada in his Himalayan cave, and he believes it is his own doing. Śiva tells him to keep it quiet, especially from Viṣṇu. He does not. What follows is the funniest and most humbling story in the Śiva Purāṇa.

The Thief Who Lit a Lamp

गुणनिधि · कुबेर

A priest's son gambles away his mother's saris and his father's ring, and is thrown out of the house. Starving, on Śivarātri night, he creeps into a temple to steal the food offerings — and tears his shirt to brighten the lamp so he can see them.

Story · 14 min

The Birth of Kāma

कामप्रादुर्भावः

At the dawn of creation a radiant youth with a bow of flowers is born from Brahmā's mind and given the task of keeping creation going. The sages name him Manmatha, Kāma, Madana and Kandarpa; but when he tests his five arrows on Brahmā and his sons in Sandhyā's presence, Śiva appears and shames them. Brahmā curses Kāma to be burnt by Śiva's eye, then softens the curse with a promise of a new body — and Dakṣa gives Kāma the lovely Rati as his wife.

Sandhyā, Who Became Arundhatī

सन्ध्या · अरुन्धती

Sandhyā, born from Brahmā's mind, is ashamed that desire stirred in her and in her own family the moment she was born. Taught by Vasiṣṭha in disguise, she does tapas for Śiva for an age of the world, wins boons that set a limit on desire for all creatures, and enters the sacrificial fire of the sage Medhātithi — to become the two twilights, and to be reborn as Arundhatī, Vasiṣṭha's wife.

Story · 20 min

The Marriage of Satī

सतीविवाह

At Brahmā's prayer the Goddess agrees to be born as Satī, daughter of Dakṣa and Vīriṇī, so that the solitary yogī Śiva will take a wife. Through a year of the Nandā vow she wins his boon, Brahmā carries the proposal, and the wedding is held at Dakṣa's house — where Brahmā's own lapse nearly costs him his life, and earns him the name Rudraśira.

Satī Tests Rāma

सतीमोह · रामपरीक्षा

Wandering the Daṇḍaka forest with Satī, Śiva sees Rāma searching for Sītā and bows to him with joy. Satī cannot believe the Lord of all would bow to a weeping man, takes Sītā's form to test him, and is recognised at once. Rāma tells her how Śiva himself made Viṣṇu worthy of his reverence — but Satī has disobeyed, and Śiva, remembering an old vow, gives her up in his heart.

The Sacrifice of Dakṣa

दक्षयज्ञ

Dakṣa holds a great sacrifice and refuses Śiva his share. His daughter Satī, Śiva's wife, cannot bear the insult — and Śiva's grief shakes the worlds.

Story · 10 min

Dadhīci and King Kṣuva

दधीचि

The sage Dadhīci and his friend King Kṣuva quarrel over whether a brahmin or a king is greater, and Kṣuva cuts him down with his thunderbolt. Revived by Śukra and armed with the Mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra, Dadhīci wins from Śiva bones of adamant and a life no one can take — and when Viṣṇu and the gods fight him on Kṣuva's behalf, he defeats them all and curses them to be ruined by Rudra's anger.

Story · 22 min

The Birth of Pārvatī

पार्वती-जन्म

The Himālaya marries Menā, eldest of the Pitṛs' three mind-born daughters, whose fate was set long ago by a sage's curse and blessing. The gods beg the Goddess to be born again; after twenty-seven years of Menā's worship she comes as their daughter — Kālī, Pārvatī, Umā — and Nārada, reading her palm, tells her parents whom she will marry.

How Tāraka Was Born

तारकासुर

Diti's son Vajrāṅga humbles Indra, then turns away from enmity — but his wife Varāṅgī wants a son who will torment the gods, and he cannot refuse her. Their son Tāraka wins from Brahmā a boon that he may die only by a son of Śiva, seizes the three worlds, and drives the gods to Brahmā, who can only point them towards Śiva and Pārvatī.

The Burning of Kāma

कामदहन

The gods need Śiva to marry, so they send Kāma, god of desire, to break his meditation. The third eye opens.

Pārvatī's Tapas and the Wedding of Śiva

शिवपार्वतीविवाह

Beauty could not win Śiva, so Pārvatī turns to austerity so fierce it frightens the gods. Then a young stranger comes to test her.

The Dancer at Menā's Door

सुनर्तक नट

Pārvatī has won Śiva by her tapas, and asks him one thing: come to my father's house like a beggar and ask for me. So a wandering dancer with a ḍamaru and a horn appears in Menā's courtyard, and the whole city comes to watch.

Kālī Becomes Gaurī

गौरी

To bring about the death of two demons, Śiva teases Pārvatī about her dark skin. Hurt, she goes back to the forest to do tapas, befriends a tiger, sheds her dark sheath — which becomes the warrior goddess Kauśikī — and returns golden, with the tiger as her guard.

The Birth of Kārttikeya

कार्त्तिकेयजन्म

A spark of Śiva too fierce for anyone to hold passes from Agni to the Gaṅgā to a forest of reeds — and becomes the commander of the gods.

The Birth of Gaṇeśa

गणेशजन्म

Pārvatī shapes a son to guard her door. He refuses to let even Śiva in — and what follows gives the world its first-worshipped god.

Story · 11 min

The Race Around the World

गणेशविवाह · क्रौञ्चगमन

Kārttikeya and Gaṇeśa both want to be married first, so Śiva and Pārvatī set a race: whoever goes around the whole earth and returns first will be wed first. Kārttikeya speeds off; Gaṇeśa worships his parents, walks around them seven times, and claims the prize — and marries Siddhi and Buddhi. When Kārttikeya returns and hears the news from Nārada, he leaves in anger for the Krauñca mountain, and his parents follow him there, where Śiva abides as Mallikārjuna.

The Poison and the Blue Throat

नीलकण्ठ

When gods and demons churn the ocean for the nectar of immortality, a poison rises first — and only Śiva can hold it.

The Bull in the Underworld

वृषभेश्वर

After the churning of the ocean, Viṣṇu chases the defeated demons into Pātāla, falls under the spell of the women born from the nectar, and forgets himself. His sons terrorise heaven and earth. Śiva comes down into the underworld as a great bull — to break a pride, not a friendship.

The Yakṣa and the Blade of Grass

यक्षेश्वर

The gods have drunk the nectar and won the war, and now they cannot stop praising their own strength. A stranger sets down a single blade of grass and asks them to cut it. One of the oldest stories in Indian thought — first told in the Kena Upaniṣad.

The Thousand Lotuses

हरीश्वर

Viṣṇu worships Śiva with a thousand names and a thousand lotuses. One lotus goes missing. Viṣṇu, the lotus-eyed, knows exactly what to offer in its place.

Śarabha and the Fire of Narasiṃha

शरभेश्वर

Narasiṃha has killed Hiraṇyakaśipu, but his fury keeps burning and the worlds begin to burn with it. Even Prahlāda cannot cool it. The gods go to Śiva. A Śaiva story told in the Śiva Purāṇa — the Vaiṣṇava tradition tells it differently.

The Descent of the Gaṅgā

गङ्गावतरण

For generations a royal family tries to bring the heavenly river to earth. When she finally falls, only Śiva can stand beneath her.

शताक्षी · शाकम्भरी · दुर्गा

The Goddess Who Wept for Nine Days

An asura named Durgama steals the four Vedas, and the world falls into a drought of a hundred years. The Goddess appears with countless eyes, weeps for nine days and nights until the rivers run again, feeds every creature with greens from her own body — and then goes to war.

The Three Cities

त्रिपुरदहन

Three flying fortresses can be destroyed only when they align, for a single instant, with a single arrow. The whole universe becomes Śiva's chariot.

Jalandhara, Son of the Ocean

जलन्धरवध

A flash of Śiva's anger, thrown into the sea, becomes a boy who grows up to conquer heaven — protected only by the faithfulness of his wife. When he demands Pārvatī, everything unravels.

Śaṅkhacūḍa and Tulasī

शङ्खचूडवध

A cursed companion of Kṛṣṇa is reborn as an unbeatable asura king, shielded by a divine armour and the faithfulness of his wife Tulasī. Ending him will cost the gods more than a battle.

Andhaka, the Blind Son

अन्धकवध

A moment of play between Śiva and Pārvatī gives birth to a blind child who grows into a demon king — and ends as one of Śiva's own. Along the way, the asuras' teacher is swallowed alive.

The Elephant Demon and the Hide

कृत्तिवास

The son of Mahiṣāsura wins a clever boon: no one overcome by desire can kill him. Then he walks into Kāśī — the city of the one being who burnt desire to ash.

The Demon Who Turned His Boon on Śiva

वृकासुर / भस्मासुर

Śiva is the easiest god to please — which is exactly why a cunning demon goes to him. The boon he wins is deadly, and his first target is Śiva himself.

The Birth of Nandī

नन्दीश्वर

A sage asks for a son who is not born of a womb and will never die. Only Śiva can give such a son — so Śiva comes himself. Seven years later, two sages say the boy has one year to live.

The Test of King Bhadrāyu

ऋषभ · द्विजेश्वर

As the yogī Ṛṣabha, Śiva brings a poisoned, abandoned prince back to life and makes him a king. Years later, as a weeping brahmin whose wife has been carried off by a tiger, he asks that king for the one thing no one can give.

Nabhaga's Inheritance

कृष्णदर्शन

While the youngest son is away studying, his brothers divide the kingdom and give him their father as his share. A clever father, a sacrifice, a heap of gold — and a dark stranger who says it is all his.

Story · 7 min

Gṛhapati, the Boy Who Became Fire

अग्नीश्वर

A wife asks her husband for one thing: a son like Śiva. Śiva himself is born to her. But when the boy is nine, Nārada reads his palm and falls silent — in his twelfth year, lightning or fire will come for him.

Durvāsā, the Sage Who Tests

दुर्वासा

The most feared sage in the Purāṇas, whose anger could burn a king. The Śiva Purāṇa says his anger was a test — and that Durvāsā was Śiva himself, testing Ambarīṣa, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa and Draupadī.

Pippalāda, the Child of the Fig Tree

पिप्पलाद

The gods need a weapon, and the only thing strong enough is a sage’s bones. Dadhīci gives them gladly. His wife does not forgive them. And from her grief Śiva is born beneath a pīpal tree.

The Dance in the Pine Forest

दारुकावन

Proud sages in a forest hermitage believe their rituals control the universe. A beautiful naked beggar walks into their village — and ends up dancing on everything they send against him.

Rāvaṇa Lifts Kailāsa

रावणानुग्रह

Flushed with victory, Rāvaṇa tries to lift Śiva's mountain out of his way. Śiva presses down with one toe — and the ten-headed king's cry echoes through the worlds.

Hanumān, Śiva’s Own Portion

हनुमान्

Why do Śaiva devotees call Hanumān Rudrāvatāra? The Śiva Purāṇa tells how Śiva’s radiance, set aside for Rāma’s work, was carried by the seven sages to Añjanī — and what that radiance did in Laṅkā.

Bāṇa of the Thousand Arms

बाणासुर

A demon king dances so well that Śiva comes to live at his gate. Then he asks for a war worthy of his thousand arms — and gets one, against Kṛṣṇa himself.

Arjuna and the Hunter

किरातार्जुनीयम्

In exile, Arjuna climbs the Himālaya to win Śiva's weapon. A wild boar charges, two arrows strike it at once — and a quarrel begins with a hunter who cannot be beaten.

Aśvatthāmā, Rudra on the Kaurava Side

अश्वत्थामा

Droṇa asks Śiva for an unconquerable son, and Śiva gives a portion of himself. The Śiva Purāṇa's short account of Aśvatthāmā in the Mahābhārata war — the brahmaśiras weapon, Arjuna's Śaiva answer, and the unborn child in Uttarā's womb.

Story · 11 min

Anasūyā: The River That Came for a Wife's Vow

अनसूया · अत्रीश्वर

In the Kāmada forest near Citrakūṭa, during a terrible drought, the sage Atri sinks into samādhi and his wife Anasūyā, left alone, serves him and worships an earthen liṅga for years without eating. Gaṅgā, won over by her fidelity, appears and becomes water in a small pit she has dug; when Anasūyā gives Gaṅgā a year of her merit so the river will stay, Śiva himself rises from the liṅga, remains there as Atrīśvara, and the rains return.

Nandikeśvara: Where Gaṅgā Comes to the Narmadā

नन्दिकेश्वर · रेवातट

A brahmin carrying his mother's bones to Kāśī overhears a cow vow revenge on the man who struck her calf, watches her kill and turn black with the sin, and then sees her wash herself white again in the Narmadā beside Nandikeśvara. Gaṅgā herself, in the form of a woman, tells him to release the bones there, and his mother rises to heaven. The Purāṇa then explains the place: a young widow named Ṛṣikā, saved by Śiva from a demon, asked him to stay in her earthen liṅga — and promised Gaṅgā a day each Vaiśākha by her side.

Mahābaleśvara: The Liṅga at Gokarṇa

महाबलेश्वर · गोकर्ण

On the western shore lies Gokarṇa, where Śiva lives as Mahābala, a liṅga that changes colour with each age and is guarded by the gods at its four gates. There a blind, starving cāṇḍāla woman, begging on Śivarātri, tosses away a bilva sprig she cannot eat; it lands on a liṅga, her hungry night becomes a fast and a vigil, and Śiva's attendants carry her to his world. And there King Mitrasaha — Kalmāṣapāda, who as a cursed rākṣasa devoured a young brahmin — is finally freed, on the sage Gautama's advice, from the brahmin-killing that had dogged his steps.

Andhakeśvara and the Origin of the Baṭukas

अन्धकेश्वर · बटुक

Śiva impales the demon Andhaka on his trident at the mouth of his hiding-pit, and at Andhaka's own request stays there as the Andhakeśvara liṅga. The Purāṇa then explains who the Baṭukas are: Sudarśana, son of the sage Dadhīci, is cursed for worshipping Śiva impure on Śivarātri, but Pārvatī adopts him as her son, and Śiva makes him and his four sons the first to be honoured in his worship.

Story · 8 min

Somanātha: The Moon's Healing

सोमनाथ · सोमेश्वर

Candra, the Moon, married Dakṣa's twenty-seven daughters but loved only Rohiṇī, and Dakṣa cursed him to waste away. On Brahmā's advice he worshipped Śiva at Prabhāsa with the Mṛtyuñjaya mantra for six months, and Śiva gave him the waning and waxing of the fortnights — and stayed there as Someśvara, the first of the twelve Jyotirliṅgas.

मल्लिकार्जुन · क्रौञ्चपर्वत

Mallikārjuna: The Parents Who Followed Their Son

Returning to Kailāsa from his circuit of the earth, Kārttikeya hears from Nārada that Gaṇeśa has been married, and in spite of his parents' pleas he leaves for the Krauñca mountain. The gods cannot bring him back, and when Śiva and Pārvatī come themselves he moves three yojanas further away; so they stay on Krauñca in the form of light, as the liṅga named Mallikārjuna — Mallikā for Pārvatī, Arjuna for Śiva — the second of the twelve jyotirliṅgas.

Mahākāla of Ujjayinī

महाकाल · महाकालेश्वर

When the demon Dūṣaṇa besieged Avantī to stamp out Vedic worship, the four sons of the brahmin Vedapriya kept on worshipping their earthen liṅga — and Śiva burst from the ground as Mahākāla and burned the demon to ash. Later, when rival kings besieged King Candrasena of Ujjayinī for his wish-granting gem, a five-year-old cowherd boy's worship of a stone brought a jewelled temple out of nowhere, turned the kings to peace, and drew Hanumān to bless the boy, Śrīkara.

Oṃkāreśvara: The Mountain Who Wished to Grow

ओंकारेश्वर · परमेश्वर

Stung when Nārada tells him that Meru stands higher and is home to the gods, the Vindhya mountain worships a clay liṅga of Śiva for six months. Śiva grants his wish, and at the gods' request stays on — the one liṅga of Oṃkāra dividing into Oṃkāreśvara and Parameśvara.

Kedāreśvara: The Lord Who Stayed in the Snows

केदारेश्वर

Nara and Nārāyaṇa, the two sons of Dharma and forms of Viṣṇu, worshipped Śiva every day in an earthen liṅga at Badarikāśrama. When Śiva offered them a boon, they asked only that he stay there in his own form — and he settled as a light in the snowy land of Kedāra, as Kedāreśvara. The Purāṇa also tells how he fled the Pāṇḍavas as a buffalo and was held fast there, and praises the pilgrimage that leads to liberation.

Bhīmaśaṅkara: The King Who Would Not Let Go

भीमशङ्कर · भीमेश्वर

Bhīma, the son of Kumbhakarṇa and the rākṣasī Karkaṭī, learns that Rāma killed his father and wins unmatched strength from Brahmā by a thousand years of tapas. He drives out the gods, defeats Viṣṇu and throws Sudakṣiṇa, the Śiva-devoted king of Kāmarūpa, into chains; but when he raises his sword against the king's earthen liṅga, Śiva comes out of it, burns the demon and his army to ash, and stays on in Kāmarūpa as the jyotirliṅga Bhīmaśaṅkara.

विश्वेश्वर · अविमुक्त · काशी

Viśveśvara: The City on the Trident

The one Supreme became Śiva and Śakti, and from them came Prakṛti and Puruṣa, who had nowhere to do tapas — so Śiva made for them the five-krośa city of Kāśī out of his own being, held it on his trident above the flood, set the Avimukta liṅga in it and later placed it in the world of mortals. At the prayer of Rudra and of the Avimukta liṅga he made Kāśī his own dwelling; and to Pārvatī he explained why anyone who dies within its five krośas is freed.

Story · 18 min

Tryambakeśvara: Gautama and the Godāvarī

त्र्यम्बकेश्वर · गौतमी

In a hundred-year drought, the sage Gautama wins from Varuṇa a pit of water that never runs dry, and the forest of Brahmagiri blooms again. Jealous sages turn Gaṇeśa into a dying cow to frame him; Gautama does penance, and when Śiva appears he asks only for Gaṅgā. She stays on as the Gautamī, and Śiva stays beside her as Tryambakeśvara.

Vaidyanātha: The Physician of Rāvaṇa

वैद्यनाथेश्वर

When long tapas did not move Śiva, Rāvaṇa began cutting off his heads as offerings; at the tenth Śiva appeared, joined the heads back like a physician, and gave him matchless strength and a liṅga to carry to Laṅkā. On the way a cowherd set the liṅga down and it stayed there as Vaidyanātheśvara — while Nārada, sent by the worried gods, goaded Rāvaṇa into shaking Kailāsa and earning Śiva's curse.

Story · 10 min

Nāgeśvara: Supriya in the Forest of Dāruka

नागेश्वर · दारुकावन

The rākṣasī Dārukā, armed with a boon from Pārvatī, carries her whole forest into the western sea, and from there her husband Dāruka and his demons seize travellers and throw them in chains. Among the prisoners the merchant Supriya teaches everyone to worship Śiva; when the demons come to kill him, Śiva appears, destroys them, and stays on as the jyotirliṅga Nāgeśvara — while Pārvatī keeps her word to Dārukā.

Rāmeśvara: Rāma's Earthen Liṅga

रामेश्वर

Camped on the shore of the southern sea with his monkey army, Rāma grows thirsty — and, as he lifts the water to his lips, remembers that he has not yet worshipped Śiva. He shapes an earthen liṅga, worships it with the sixteen offerings, prays for help against Rāvaṇa and dances before it, until Śiva appears with Pārvatī and grants him victory. At Rāma's request Śiva stays there as a liṅga, known on earth as Rāmeśvara.

Ghuśmeśvara: The Mother Who Kept Worshipping

घुश्मेश्वर · शिवालय

Childless Sudehā makes her husband marry her younger sister Ghuśmā, who worships a hundred and one earthen liṅgas every day and is granted a son. Consumed by jealousy, Sudehā kills the boy and throws his body into the lake; Ghuśmā does not break her worship, the son walks out of the lake alive, and when Śiva offers to punish Sudehā, Ghuśmā asks him to protect her sister instead — and to stay there in her name.

Story · 2 min

Mārkaṇḍeya and the Lord of Death

कालान्तक

A boy is granted brilliance but only sixteen years of life. On the day Death comes for him, he wraps his arms around the Liṅga — and Śiva bursts out of the stone.

Upamanyu and the Ocean of Milk

उपमन्यु

His mother mixes flour in water and calls it milk. The boy knows. So he goes to the Himālaya to ask Śiva himself — and when Indra comes instead, offering everything, he refuses.

The Hunter's Guest

यतिनाथ · हंस

A hunter's hut has room for two. An ascetic knocks at dusk. What the hunter and his wife do that night echoes into the most famous love story of the Mahābhārata.

The Orphan by the Lake

भिक्षुवर्य

A newborn prince lies crying alone beside a lake. A poor widow finds him and is afraid even to touch him — she does not know whose child he is. Then a beggar walks up and tells her everything.

Mahānandā and the Jewelled Bracelet

वैश्यनाथ

She was a courtesan, and a devotee of Śiva — her dancing monkey and rooster wore rudrākṣa beads. A merchant offers her a bracelet for a promise. The Śiva Purāṇa tells what she does when keeping that promise means walking into fire.

The Hunter on Śivarātri

गुरुद्रुह · व्याधेश्वर

On Śivarātri night the hunter Gurudruha, finding no game, waits in a bilva tree above a pool. Each time he draws his bow, water and bilva leaves fall on a liṅga below, so that he worships Śiva in all four watches without knowing it — while three deer, one after another, promise to come back and give him their bodies once their young are safe. When the whole family keeps its word, the hunter's heart turns; Śiva appears, names him Guha, and blesses him, and the place becomes Vyādheśvara on Mount Arbuda.