your bridge home
Tales of the Gods
Two brothers grew strong enough to threaten the whole Deccan. Shiva came down himself - and then did not go home.
Two brothers grew strong enough to terrorise the sages and threaten the order of the whole Deccan.
Their names were Mani and Malla, and the gods went to Shiva about them.
He came down himself, not in his calm form but a fierce, martial one, remembered as Martanda Bhairava and known across the region simply as Khandoba.
He beat them at Jejuri, a hill in what is now Maharashtra.
And then he did the thing that makes him interesting.
He did not go home.
Gods descend, finish the job, and return to Kailasa. That is the shape of nearly every story like this one. Khandoba stayed. He took the demons' own fort, Jejuri-gad, and he has ruled the country from it ever since.
The rest of this story, read aloud, and a new one every day.