Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Hindu Mythology trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 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 appears as the scribe in 37 of the 59 manuscripts used for the epic's critical edition, though its editors judged the scene a late interpolation and moved it to an appendix.
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 04Which brother of Ravana, tongue-tied as he asked a boon, wished for sleep instead of Indra's throne?
Kumbhakarna
Kumbhakarna meant to ask for Indrasana, the throne of Indra, and said Nidrasana, a bed for sleeping; the curse was later softened to six months of sleep at a time.
Q 05Which fire-immune demoness burned on a pyre while her nephew Prahlada survived unharmed 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, was cursed by his own wife to be worshipped only at Pushkar, which is why the god who made the world has so few shrines.
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 palms, then outgrew a pot, a tank and finally the sea before revealing the deluge to come.
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 10Which Pandava refused to enter heaven without the stray dog that had followed him up the Himalayas?
Yudhishthira
Yudhishthira's dog turned out to be his father Yama in disguise, and the refusal was the second of three tests of his righteousness; the last came when he chose hell with his brothers over heaven with his cousins.
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 churning of the ocean of milk and chose Vishnu as her eternal consort?
Lakshmi
Lakshmi is held to accompany Vishnu in each of his descents to earth, appearing 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 23Which sister of Ravana lost her nose to Lakshmana's blade after lunging at Sita in the forest?
Shurpanakha
Q 14Which mount of Vishnu 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 a thousand serpents, and the serpents named the amrita as the price of her freedom.
Q 15Which mount of Shiva faces the shrine in nearly every Shiva temple, wishes whispered into its ear?
Nandi
Nandi, the bull, is installed on the temple's central axis facing the linga by rule of the ancient Agama texts, and his name means joy.
Q 16Which white elephant carries Indra into battle and is said to bind the clouds that bring rain?
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 also tied to Krishna's slaying of the demon Narakasura, who held 16,000 girls captive; the day before Diwali, Naraka Chaturdashi, marks his death.
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, wiped out Vishvamitra's forces and all his sons, a humiliation that drove the king to renounce 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 Indra's forces could reach the demons who had fled there after the war with Vritra, and Rama himself calls him the sage who made the Vindhyas bow.
Shurpanakha had first proposed marriage to Rama, and her humiliation sent Ravana after Sita — the spark for the whole war of the Ramayana.
Q 24Which part of Hanuman did Ravana's guards wrap in oil-soaked cloth and set alight in Lanka?
His tail
His tail grew longer each time more cloth was added, and Hanuman then used the flames to set Lanka itself ablaze before escaping.
Q 25Which bow of Shiva did Rama break to win Sita's hand at her svayamvara in the court of King Janaka?
Pinaka
Pinaka had been entrusted by the gods to Janaka's ancestor Devarata for safekeeping, and the bow is first named in the Samhitas of the Yajurveda.
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 four boons from Yama as they walked, the last a hundred sons for herself and Satyavan — a promise he could keep only by restoring her husband to life.