Hindu Mythology Trivia
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100 free Hindu Mythology trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Hindu mythology is one of the oldest living story-worlds on Earth: a god who swallows poison to save the universe, a demon who asked for the wrong boon and slept for six months at a time, and an eclipse that is really a severed head taking revenge on the sun. These stories still shape festivals celebrated by over a billion people. This quiz covers the Trimurti and Vishnu's avatars, Shiva and the great goddesses, the churning of the ocean, the heroes and villains of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, divine mounts and weapons, Puranic sages and kings, and the myths behind the big festivals. It is written for curious players who know the famous names and want the stories behind them, and for quiz hosts who need verified questions with a clear explanation for every answer. Every question cites the page that establishes it.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which avatar of Vishnu slew Hiranyakashipu, whom neither man nor beast could kill, by day or night?
Narasimha
Narasimha, half man and half lion, struck at twilight on a palace threshold, tearing Hiranyakashipu apart with his claws on his lap so that no clause of the demon's boon was broken.
Q 02Which god took down the Mahabharata as Vyasa dictated it, on condition that the sage never paused?
Ganesha
Ganesha set that condition, and Vyasa answered with one of his own: write nothing you don't understand. The sage then composed knotty verses whenever he needed a rest.
Q 03Which asura, beheaded mid-sip of the gods' nectar of immortality, swallows the sun in eclipses?
Rahu
Rahu's severed head lived on because the nectar had already passed his lips, and each eclipse is his recurring revenge on the sun and moon, who had informed on him.
Q 04In the popular telling, which brother of Ravana, tongue-tied as he asked a boon, wished for sleep by mistake?
Kumbhakarna
Kumbhakarna, in that telling, meant to ask for Indrasana, the throne of Indra, and said Nidrasana, a bed for sleeping; the boon was later eased to six months of sleep at a time.
Q 05Which demoness, believing herself safe from fire, burned on a pyre while her nephew Prahlada survived on her lap?
Holika
Holika's death is re-enacted in the bonfires lit on the eve of Holi, the spring festival of colours, celebrating the victory of Prahlada's devotion over his father Hiranyakashipu.
Q 06Which great Hindu god has hardly any temples in India, the most famous being at Pushkar, Rajasthan?
Brahma
Brahma, the creator in the Trimurti, is said in one legend to have been cursed by his own wife to be worshipped only at Pushkar, after he began a fire rite there with another bride in her place.
Q 07Which prophesied avatar of Vishnu rides a white horse with a fiery sword to end the current age?
Kalki
Kalki's horse is named Devadatta, and his coming is said to close the Kali Yuga and restart the cycle with the Satya Yuga, an age of truth.
Q 08Which avatar of Vishnu warned Manu of a coming flood and towed his boat by its horn to safety?
Matsya
Matsya first appeared as a tiny fish in Manu's cupped hands, and he moved it from a water jar to ever larger waters and finally the sea as it grew.
Q 09Which Mahabharata patriarch, able to choose his own hour of death, lay for weeks on a bed of arrows?
Bhishma
Bhishma earned that boon from his father Shantanu by vowing lifelong celibacy so the king could remarry, and he waited on the arrows until the winter solstice to die.
Q 10Who refused to enter heaven without the stray dog that had followed him up the Himalayas?
Yudhishthira
Yudhishthira's dog was his father, the god Dharma, in disguise; the refusal was the second of three tests, and in the last he chose hell with his brothers over heaven beside his cousin Duryodhana.
Q 11Which uprooted mountain served as the rod when gods and asuras churned the ocean of milk for nectar?
Mandara
Mount Mandara was so heavy it sank to the ocean floor, so Vishnu became the tortoise Kurma and propped it on his back while the serpent Vasuki served as the rope.
Q 12Which female form of Vishnu tricked the asuras into surrendering the nectar of immortality?
Mohini
Mohini later captivated Shiva himself, and their union is said to have produced the god Shasta; she also tricked the ash-demon Bhasmasura into destroying himself.
Q 13Which goddess rose from the ocean of milk as gods and asuras churned it for the nectar of immortality?
Lakshmi
Lakshmi chose Vishnu as her consort as soon as she rose, and is held to follow him in each descent to earth, as Sita beside Rama and as Rukmini beside Krishna.
Q 21Which queen of Ayodhya used two old boons from King Dasharatha to demand Rama's exile to the forest?
Kaikeyi
Kaikeyi had earned the boons years earlier on a battlefield where she accompanied Dasharatha against the asuras, and her hunchbacked nurse Manthara talked her into cashing them in.
Q 22Which rakshasa took the form of a golden deer with silver spots to lure Rama away from Sita?
Maricha
Maricha, dying from Rama's arrow, cried out in Rama's own voice so that Sita would send Lakshmana after him, leaving her alone for Ravana to seize.
Q 23Who lost her nose to Lakshmana's blade after lunging at Sita in the forest?
Shurpanakha
Shurpanakha, Ravana's sister, had first proposed marriage to Rama; her humiliation sent Ravana after Sita, the spark for the whole war of the Ramayana.
Q 14Which divine bird stole the amrita from Indra's heaven to free his mother Vinata from slavery?
Garuda
Garuda's mother had lost a rigged bet to her co-wife Kadru, mother of the serpents, who named the amrita as her ransom; Vishnu then asked the victorious bird to be his mount.
Q 15Whose stone image sits facing the main shrine in nearly every Shiva temple?
Nandi
Nandi, the bull, is not always shown as a bull: as Shiva's gatekeeper and chief attendant he also appears in human form, three-eyed and four-armed like the god himself.
Q 16Which white elephant, king of his kind, carries the storm god Indra into battle?
Airavata
Airavata once threw to the ground a garland the sage Durvasa had presented to Indra, a slight whose curse robbed the gods of their vigour and forced the churning of the ocean.
Q 17Which six-headed war god, raised by six nursemaids and fused into one by Parvati, rides a peacock?
Kartikeya
Kartikeya's name means 'of the Krittikas', and his peacock mount and the rooster on his banner are said to be the two halves of a demon-turned-mango-tree he split with his spear.
Q 18Which autumn festival marks Rama's return to Ayodhya with Sita after fourteen years of exile?
Diwali
Diwali is marked in northern India with rows of clay lamps for Rama's homecoming, while much of the south instead celebrates Krishna's defeat of the demon Narakasura.
Q 19What did King Vishvamitra try to seize from the sage Vasishtha, only to be routed by its army?
Kamadhenu
Kamadhenu, the cow of plenty, brought forth whole armies that crushed Vishvamitra's troops, a humiliation that drove the king to give up his throne and become a sage himself.
Q 20Which sage drank up the ocean to expose demons hiding in it and stopped the Vindhya range growing?
Agastya
Agastya drained the sea so the gods could reach the demons hiding in it, and asked the Vindhyas to stay low until he came back from the south; he never returned.
Q 24Which part of Hanuman did Ravana's guards wrap in oil-soaked cloth and set alight in Lanka?
His tail
His tail, in a popular telling, grew longer each time more cloth was added; once it was lit, Hanuman leapt from roof to roof and set Lanka itself ablaze.
Q 25Which bow of Shiva did Rama break to win Sita's hand at her svayamvara in the court of King Janaka?
Pinaka
Pinaka was so heavy that no other suitor could even lift it, let alone string it; Rama drew the string so taut that the great bow snapped in two.
Q 26Which flying chariot did Ravana steal from his half-brother Kubera, and Rama later fly home in?
Pushpaka
Pushpaka was built by the divine architect Vishvakarma and seized along with Lanka itself; after the war Rama handed the craft back to Kubera.
Q 27Which festival burns towering effigies of Ravana, packed with fireworks, to mark Rama's victory?
Dussehra
Dussehra, or Vijayadashami, also closes Durga Puja in eastern and southern India, where clay images of the goddess are carried in procession and immersed in rivers.
Q 28Which festival marks Krishna's midnight birth in a Mathura prison where his parents were captives?
Janmashtami
Janmashtami fasts are broken at midnight, the hour of the birth, and the newborn was carried across the Yamuna that same night to foster parents on the far bank.
Q 29Which Kerala festival welcomes the generous asura king Mahabali back from the netherworld each year?
Onam
Onam's returning king was banished by Vishnu's dwarf avatar Vamana, who asked Mahabali for three steps of land and then covered the universe in three strides.
Q 30Which princess followed Yama, god of death, arguing until he released her husband Satyavan's soul?
Savitri
Savitri wrung boon after boon from Yama as they walked, the last a hundred sons of her own, a promise he could keep only by restoring her husband to life.