Indian Mythology Trivia Quiz

About this quiz

This Indian Mythology Trivia Quiz has 200 questions: 70 easy, 80 medium and 50 hard. It is free. Play it with friends in a room for 2 to 12 players, on phones or in a browser, or play it solo. Type your answers: close enough counts, so a small typo still scores.

Sample questions

20 of the 200 Indian mythology questions in this pack. Think of your answer, then open it.

1. Rajasthan's Gangaur festival honours Gauri, another name for which goddess?

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   Parvati

   Women pray to her for a good husband, or a long life for the one they have, just as she won Shiva.

2. Which demon could burn anyone to ash with a touch on the head, until Mohini tricked him into touching his own?

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   Bhasmasura

   He had tried the boon on Shiva first; Vishnu, as Mohini, got him to copy her dance, hand on head.

3. The bonfire on the night before Holi recalls which demoness, who burned while the boy Prahlada walked out unharmed?

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   Holika

   She wore a shawl that kept off fire, but it flew from her shoulders and wrapped around Prahlada instead.

4. In the Tulsi Vivah festival, the tulsi plant is ritually married to which god?

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   Vishnu

   Vishnu is usually present as a shaligram stone, and the ceremony opens the Hindu wedding season.

5. A princess married him knowing a sage's prophecy that he would die within a year. Who was he?

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   Satyavan

   When the day came, she followed Yama and wouldn't let him go.

6. Which boy, refused a seat on his father's lap, prayed so hard that he became the Pole Star?

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   Dhruva

   Vishnu gave him the one place in the sky that never moves, while all the other stars circle him.

7. During Navratri, families worship and feed young girls as forms of the goddess. What is this ritual called?

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   Kanya Pujan

   In some homes one more girl is worshipped each day, until nine are fed on the last day.

8. Guru Purnima, when students honour their teachers, is celebrated as the birthday of which sage?

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   Vyasa

   That's why it's also called Vyasa Purnima, after the sage said to have arranged the Vedas.

9. India's first full-length feature film, made in 1913, told the story of which king who never told a lie?

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   Harishchandra

   Dadasaheb Phalke made it, and because no woman would act, a man played the queen.

10. Which short-tempered sage was chased across the universe by Vishnu's discus after attacking the devoted King Ambarisha?

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    Durvasa

    Even Vishnu would not help; he had to go back and beg Ambarisha, who called the discus off.

11. Choti Diwali marks Narakasura's death. In popular legend, which queen of Krishna, a form of the demon's own mother, struck him down?

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    Satyabhama

    Naraka could only die by his mother's hand, and Satyabhama was a form of the earth goddess who bore him.

12. Gods, demons, serpents and Garuda all share which sage as their father, the one Kashmir is said to be named after?

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    Kashyapa

    His wives Aditi and Diti were the mothers of the gods and the demons, so they are half-brothers.

13. Which king, thrown out by the gods, hangs upside down in a heaven Vishvamitra built just for him?

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    Trishanku

    His name is now used for anyone stuck halfway, 'Trishanku' between two worlds.

14. Which sage drank up the entire ocean so the gods could find the demons hiding under it?

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    Agastya

    The same short sage is said to have made the Vindhya mountains bow down.

15. Which short sage made the Vindhya mountains bow down, asking them to stay low until he came back, and never returned?

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    Agastya

    He settled in the south, and in Tamil tradition he is honoured as Agathiyar, a father of Tamil.

16. Janmashtami takes its name from the lunar day Krishna was born. Which number day is it?

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    Eighth

    Fittingly, he was also Devaki's eighth child, and devotees fast until his birth at midnight.

17. Who was Kamadeva's wife, who wept when Shiva burned him to ashes?

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    Rati

    Her grief moved Shiva to let Kama live on without a body, as Ananga.

18. The day after Diwali, temples pile up dishes into a 'mountain of food' recalling Govardhan hill. What is this called?

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    Annakut

    Temples stack up dozens, sometimes hundreds, of dishes to recall the hill Krishna lifted.

19. Which god hid Krishna's cowherd friends and calves for a year, only to find Krishna had taken all their forms?

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    Brahma

    For a whole year no parent or cow noticed; Brahma, humbled, bowed and sang his praise.

20. Which apsara was born from the thigh of a sage, to outshine the beauties Indra had sent to tempt him?

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    Urvashi

    Her name is linked to 'uru', thigh; Indra's apsaras went home embarrassed.

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