Hindu Gods and Goddessesदेवी-देवता

The Auspicious One

One of the principal deities of Hinduism: the ascetic on Kailasa and the householder with Parvati, the destroyer within the Trimurti and, for Shaivas, the supreme reality itself. Worshipped chiefly in the aniconic form of the linga, and across India at the twelve Jyotirlingas.

The Preserver

The preserver of the Trimurti and, for Vaishnavas, the supreme reality — the deity who descends into the world as an avatar whenever dharma falters. Worshipped directly and through his descents, of whom Rama and Krishna are the most beloved.

The All-Attractive One

The eighth avatar of Vishnu and, for many traditions, the complete descent rather than a partial one — the cowherd of Vrindavan, the statesman of Dwarka, and the charioteer who speaks the Bhagavad Gita.

The Ideal King

The seventh avatar of Vishnu and the hero of the Ramayana — the prince of Ayodhya whose exile, search for Sita and war with Ravana became the template for kingship, duty and devotion across South and Southeast Asia.

The Remover of Obstacles

The elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, invoked before every undertaking. Ganesha is worshipped across sectarian lines — Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta and Smarta households alike begin with him — which makes him one of the most widely venerated deities in the Hindu world.

The Devoted One

The vanara who crossed the ocean to find Sita, and the tradition's model of devotion as service. Among the most widely worshipped deities in India — invoked for courage, protection and steadiness, honoured on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and praised in the Hanuman Chalisa, very likely the most recited devotional text in the world.

The Great Goddess

The Goddess as the supreme reality — Mahadevi, of whom Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati are aspects. The centre of Shaktism, one of the major traditions of Hinduism, and the subject of the Devi Mahatmya.

The Invincible

The warrior goddess who destroys Mahishasura — worshipped across India during Navaratri and, in Bengal and the east, at Durga Puja. In Shakta theology she is not an assistant to the gods but the supreme reality from whom they draw their power.

She Who Is Time

The fierce form of the Goddess — black, garlanded with skulls, standing on Shiva. Central to Bengali and tantric Shaktism, and understood not as a goddess of destruction but of time, which destroys everything and is not therefore evil.

Goddess of Fortune

The goddess of fortune, abundance and wellbeing, and the consort of Vishnu. Worshipped at Diwali in nearly every Hindu household, and understood in Sri Vaishnavism not as an attendant of the supreme but as inseparable from it.

Goddess of Knowledge

Goddess of knowledge, music, speech and the arts — and, in the Rigveda, a river. Worshipped at Vasant Panchami by students and musicians, and the deity before whom children are traditionally taught to write their first letters.

The Daughter of the Furrow

The wife of Rama and the heart of the Ramayana — found in a ploughed furrow, married at Mithila, carried off to Lanka, and in the end returned to the earth she came from. Worshipped as Lakshmi's descent and as a goddess of the earth in her own right.

The Sun

The sun as a deity — the one major Hindu god who is directly visible. Invoked in the Gayatri mantra, worshipped at Chhath and Makar Sankranti, and once the centre of a distinct sect with its own great temples at Konark and Modhera.

The Tamil God

Kartikeya in the north and Murugan in the Tamil country — the youthful commander of the divine armies, worshipped at the six Arupadai Veedu shrines and at Thaipusam, and one of the most fervently followed deities in South India and the Tamil diaspora.

Lord of the Universe

The deity of Puri, worshipped in a wooden form unlike any other Hindu image, alongside his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. Identified with Krishna, and the origin of the Rath Yatra — and of the English word 'juggernaut'.

Lord of the Seven Hills

The form of Vishnu worshipped at Tirumala — among the most visited religious sites on earth, and the wealthiest temple in India. Known as Balaji, Srinivasa and Govinda, and approached with the distinctive vows of tonsure and hair offering.

The River Goddess

The Ganges as a goddess — a river worshipped as a living deity along its whole course, held to purify what is immersed in it, and central to Hindu death rites. Also one of the most polluted major rivers in the world, which is a fact the tradition now has to hold alongside the other.

The Beloved of Krishna

Krishna's beloved, and in several traditions the personification of devotion itself. A relatively late arrival in the textual record who became, within a few centuries, inseparable from him — her name spoken first in the greeting Radhe Krishna.

The Lord of Time

Shiva as the fierce guardian of time and of boundaries — the koṭwāl of Kashi, who carries the staff of consequence and a dog at his feet. In the Kashmir Shaiva tantras he is not an aspect of the Absolute but the Absolute itself.

The Ten Wisdom Goddesses

The ten wisdom goddesses of the Shakta Tantras — Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamalatmika. Not ten deities but one Shakti counted ten ways, deliberately spanning a sixteen-year-old beauty, an old widow and a goddess who has cut off her own head.