Stories for children
Stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas, retold for ages 3 to 14, each naming the text it comes from.
The youngest stories leave out anything frightening. Read them aloud, and talk about them together.
Ages 3-6
Dhruva, the Pole Star
Little Prince Dhruva is told he may not sit on his father's lap. He goes to the forest and prays to Vishnu with all his heart, and Vishnu gives him a place in the sky that never moves.
Draupadi's Pot That Never Ran Out
The Sun god gives the Pandavas a copper pot that keeps filling with food for every guest. One day it is empty just as a sage arrives with ten thousand pupils, and Krishna finds one tiny grain of rice inside.
Ganesha Goes Round the World
Shiva and Parvati set their two sons a race round the whole world. Kartikeya flies off on his peacock, but Ganesha walks round his parents, because to him they are the whole world.
Ganesha Writes the Mahabharata
The sage Vyasa has a very long poem in his mind and needs someone to write it down. Ganesha agrees, but only if Vyasa never stops speaking, and Vyasa agrees, but only if Ganesha understands every line.
How Ganga Came Down to Earth
King Bhagiratha prays for years to bring the river Ganga down from heaven. Shiva catches her in his long hair so that her rush does not break the earth, and Ganga follows Bhagiratha all the way to the sea.
Jagannath and the Closed Door
King Indradyumna longs to see the Lord. A mysterious old carpenter offers to carve the holy images behind a closed door, if no one looks in. The king peeks too soon, and that is why Jagannath has big round eyes and no hands or feet.
Krishna and the Butter
Little Krishna takes butter from the high pots of his village and shares it with his friends and the monkeys. When his mother Yashoda tries to tie him to a big stone mortar, every rope is two fingers too short, until Krishna lets himself be tied.
The Night Krishna Was Born
Krishna is born at midnight in a prison in Mathura. The doors open by themselves, and his father Vasudeva carries him through the rain and across the river Yamuna to Gokul, where Yashoda and Nanda will bring him up.
Krishna Lifts Govardhan Hill
Krishna asks the cowherd families to thank Govardhan Hill and their cows instead of Indra. When Indra sends a great storm, Krishna lifts the whole hill on one hand and everyone shelters underneath.
The Day Rama Was Born
King Dasharatha of Ayodhya longs for children. A shining being rises from the sacred fire with a golden bowl of heavenly drink, and soon four princes are born: Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana and Shatrughna.
The Universe in Krishna's Mouth
The children tell Yashoda that little Krishna has eaten mud. When she looks inside his mouth, she sees the whole universe, and then she forgets it all and simply hugs her little boy.
Ages 7-10
Durga and the Buffalo King
When the buffalo king Mahisha drives the gods out of heaven, their shining powers join together and become the goddess Durga. Riding a lion and carrying the gods' gifts, she overcomes Mahisha, however many shapes he takes.
Hanuman Finds Sita
Hanuman leaps across the ocean to Lanka, searches the city by moonlight and finds Sita in a garden of ashoka trees. He gives her Rama's ring, carries her jewel back to Rama, and tells him the words everyone has been waiting for: "I have seen Sita."
Hanuman Leaps for the Sun
On the shore of the ocean, old Jambavan reminds Hanuman of his childhood: how, as a hungry baby, he leapt into the sky to pick the rising sun like a fruit, and how the wind god's son was given his name. Remembering who he is, Hanuman rises to cross the sea.
Krishna, Satyabhama and King Naraka
The tyrant Naraka has stolen the earrings of Aditi, the mother of the gods, and locked up thousands of princesses. Krishna flies on Garuda with Queen Satyabhama to his city, overcomes him, sets the captives free and returns the earrings.
Prahlad and the Fire of Holika
The boy Prahlad loves Vishnu, though his father, the proud king Hiranyakashipu, forbids it. Nothing his father does can shake him, not even fire, and at last Vishnu comes as Narasimha. At Holi, families remember the night the fire spared Prahlad.
Rama and Ravana
In the last battle at Lanka, Indra sends Rama his own chariot, a sage teaches him a hymn to the Sun, and Rama overcomes the ten-headed king Ravana. Then he tells Ravana's grieving brother that hatred ends when the enemy has fallen.
Rama Comes Home
After fourteen years away, Rama flies home to Ayodhya with Sita, Lakshmana and his friends. His brother Bharata, who has kept Rama's sandals on the throne all that time, leads the whole city out to welcome him, and Rama is crowned king.
Savitri and Satyavan
Princess Savitri chooses Satyavan, knowing he has only one year to live. When Yama, the lord of death, comes for him, she follows Yama and speaks so wisely that he grants her gifts, until the last one brings Satyavan back.
Shiva and Parvati's Wedding
The seven great sages go to the Himalaya to ask for Parvati's hand for Shiva. The mountain city is decorated, Shiva's serpents and ashes turn into ornaments, and the gods gather for the most wonderful wedding in the three worlds.
The Churning of the Ocean
The devas and the asuras work together to churn the Ocean of Milk for the nectar of immortality. Vishnu holds up the mountain as a giant tortoise, Shiva drinks the poison that rises first, and wonderful treasures, Lakshmi among them, come up from the waves.
Vamana and King Mahabali
A small boy asks the generous king Mahabali for three steps of land, then grows until two steps cover the earth and the sky. The story is told in two ways: as the Bhagavata tells it, and as families in Kerala tell it at Onam, when Mahabali comes home to visit his people.
Varaha Lifts the Earth
At the start of a new age of the world, the Earth lies sunk deep under the waters. Vishnu takes the form of a giant boar, dives down, lifts her up on his tusks and sets her afloat, and then the world is made again.
Ages 11-14
Arjuna Sees the Universal Form
After hearing Krishna teach, Arjuna asks to see him as he truly is. Krishna gives him divine sight, and Arjuna sees the whole universe in one form, bright as a thousand suns, until, overwhelmed, he asks to see his friend again.
Arjuna's Question
Between two armies at Kurukshetra, the archer Arjuna sees his own teachers, grandfather and cousins on the other side, puts down his bow and asks Krishna what is right. Krishna's answer becomes the Bhagavad Gita.
Bhishma Waits for the Sun
Bhishma, grandfather of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas, falls at Kurukshetra while the sun is still on its southern course. Because of a boon he may choose his own time to leave the world, and he decides to wait, on a bed of arrows, until the sun turns north.
Ekalavya and His Teacher
Turned away by the great teacher Drona because of his birth, the young archer Ekalavya makes a clay image of Drona and teaches himself until he outshines the princes. When Drona asks for his right thumb as the teacher's fee, Ekalavya gives it without a word of complaint.
Nachiketa and Yama
A boy who questions his father's empty gifts is sent to Yama, the lord of death. Offered three wishes, he turns down wealth, long life and every pleasure, and asks what happens when a person dies. Yama teaches him about the Self that is never born and never dies.
Parvati's Penance
When beauty alone cannot win Shiva, Parvati leaves her father's palace and lives as an ascetic through summer heat, monsoon rain and winter snow. A young hermit comes to test her by mocking Shiva, and she answers him so fiercely that the hermit reveals who he really is.
The Dance under the Autumn Moon
On a bright autumn night Krishna plays his flute, and the gopis of Vraja leave everything to come to him. When they grow proud, he vanishes; they search the forest and sing for him; and when he returns, he dances with them in a great circle in which each one feels him beside her.
The King, the Merchant and the Sage
A king who has lost his kingdom and a merchant thrown out by his own family meet in a sage's forest home. Both still worry about the people who wronged them, and they ask the sage why. His answer becomes the Devi Mahatmya, and at the end the goddess asks each of them what he wants.