Iconography & traditions
Deities
Sanātana Dharma houses many traditions of worship — Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, Śākta, Smārta — and a much larger field of regional and folk devotion. Each entry follows the same structure: Vedic background, iconography, the major schools, stories, festivals and key texts.
Featured deities
The ascetic of Kailāsa; the dancer of Tillai.
Open entry →The preserver; ten avatāras across the cosmic ages.
Open entry →The creator of the Trimūrti; source of the Vedas.
Open entry →Śakti as the invincible slayer of Mahiṣāsura.
Open entry →Consort of Viṣṇu; goddess of śrī and abundance.
Open entry →Lord of beginnings, remover of obstacles.
Open entry →The Awakened One; ninth avatāra of Viṣṇu.
Open entry →Cowherd, prince, charioteer — the pūrṇa avatāra of Viṣṇu.
Open entry →Rāma's devoted servant; embodiment of bhakti and strength.
Open entry →Maryādā Puruṣottama; the seventh avatāra and measure of dharma.
Open entry →Goddess of wisdom, speech, learning and the arts.
Open entry →Commander of the celestial armies; son of Śiva and Pārvatī.
Open entry →Elder brother of Kṛṣṇa; plough-bearer; Ādi-Śeṣa incarnate.
Open entry →King of the devas; wielder of the vajra; lord of rain and thunder.
Open entry →The sacred fire; messenger between devas and mortals.
Open entry →Sovereign of Ṛta; lord of the cosmic waters and moral order.
Open entry →The cosmic wind; breath (prāṇa) of every living being.
Open entry →The visible Brahman; source of light, time and life.
Open entry →The luminous dawn; most celebrated goddess of the Ṛgveda.
Open entry →Essays
Essay · Foundations
The Beginningless Dawn
Cyclic cosmic time, the Vedas as Apauruṣeya, and the archeo-astronomical anchors of the earliest scriptural layer.
Essay · Cosmogony · Ṛgveda 10.129
Nāsadīya Sūkta — the hymn of creation
A verse-by-verse reading of the Rishi's meditation on what preceded existence itself — from Tad Ekam to the honest ‘perhaps even He knows not.’
Essay · Cosmogony
Trimūrti — Scriptural Origins
Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva traced from the Ṛgvedic hymn through Upanishadic identification, Purāṇic narrative and living festival.
Essay · Vocabulary
What is Dharma — and what is a Hindu?
The words Dharma, Sanātana and Hindu — and how the four great sampradāyas scale the same spiritual mountain from different sides.