From the epics
Stories from the Indian astrological tradition.
Hand-curated stories from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavata Purana, Padma Purana, Skanda Purana, Buddhist Jataka tales, the Tamil Sangam corpus, and oral folk traditions of Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. Each story sourced to a specific text. Five to ten minutes per story. Every translation is hand-authored.
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Pl. IDevi stories
Vrinda, Jalandhar, and Why Tulsi Is Married to Vishnu Every Kartik
A wife's faithfulness made her husband unkillable, so Vishnu put on her husband's own face to break it. She found out, and cursed the god who did it, without softening a word. The tradition's answer was not to deny the wrong but to marry her to him every year since.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/8 min/Adults
Krishna lifts Mount Govardhan, India, 17th c.
Pl. IIDevi stories
Kali and Raktabija: the demon who multiplied with every wound
Raktabija had a boon that turned every wound against the one who gave it: each drop of his blood that touched the ground became another Raktabija, exactly as strong as the first. The gods struck him and made the problem worse. Kali's answer was to make sure no drop ever landed.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/8 min/Adults
Sudāmā at the glimpse of Krishna’s palace, Pahari, c.1775
Pl. IIIDevi stories
The merchant's wife who asked Shiva to make her a ghoul
Punithavathi was the most beautiful woman in Karaikal, wife of a wealthy merchant, perfumed, garlanded, the envy of the town. After the mango miracle, when her husband fled in fear of her, she asked Shiva for one boon: take away this body. Let me follow you as a skeleton.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/8 min/Adults
The Battle at Lanka, Sahibdin, Mewar, 1649 to 1653
Pl. IVDevi stories
The goddess who wore earrings to humble a philosopher
When Adi Shankaracharya arrived at Jambukeshwaram, the goddess Akhilandeshwari was so fierce that priests could not approach her sanctum. The young monk did not subdue her with mantras. He gave her a pair of earrings.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/7 min/All ages
The marriage of Rama and Sita, Shangri Ramayana, c.1700
Pl. VDevi stories
A map of the goddess: walking the fifty-one places her body fell
In Balochistan, Muslim guardians keep watch over a Hindu cave shrine. In Assam, a temple bleeds for three days each year. In Kolkata, the goddess sits in a temple beside a drain. The 51 Shakti-Pithas are the strangest pilgrimage map in the world.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/8 min/Adults
Bhishma on his bed of arrows, Razmnama, 1761 to 1763
Pl. VIDevi stories
Durga and the buffalo-demon: how the gods poured their fury into one goddess
Mahishasura won a boon that no man and no god could kill him, and heaven fell. The devas did the one thing left to them. They pooled every scrap of their rage into a single blaze, and out of it walked a woman with eighteen arms.
Vidhata Editorial Desk/8 min/All ages
Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot, India, 18th to 19th c.