Mythological Story Categorizations

There are so many mythological stories and most of them, if not all are amazing. Among them some of the stories may have different versions for the same story across different part of the country. Mentioned below are the categories in which mythological stories are divided, this may not cover all but definitely most of it. I have not listed the stories from those categories.

Reincarnation Stories – Mythology is full of reincarnation of god, humans or demons. All the reincarnations of Vishnu, Siva, Parvati or any other god do create some amazing mythological stories.

Boon or Curse Stories – Many of the mythological stories are inspired by this category. Where some god, sage or human etc. gave boon or curse to any other god, sage or human etc. do form many fascinating stories. How the boon helped or curse got effected or resolved covers many mythological stories and makes them an interesting reads.

Dynasty Stories – How any popular dynasty been formed and what happed to that dynasty across the generation helped in creating many mythological epics. This induces too many characters which cause too many twist and turns to the story.

Animal Stories – Apart from God, Rakshas and Humans there are different animals who took part in many mythological stories. Animals like Bird, Fish, Snake, Monkey, Squirrel, Lion and Bear etc. are main characters of many mythological stories. Their originations, their role play and how their ends meet do create many touching stories.

Love or Hate Stories – In Indian mythology there are many beautiful love stories so also many hate or revenge stories. How the love originates between two characters and how their love conquered all odds or defeated by hatred or what causes the hatred between two characters and triggers the revenge are quite integral part of mythological stories. Here love can also be between father sons or siblings or between any two characters apart from lovers, so also is the hatred.

War Stories – Last but not least, if any story don’t have the five categories mentioned above will definitely have the war stories. Many mythological stories which project the war between God and Rakshas do falls under this category. The duration of these wars varies and may last for couple of hours to multiple days. This include usage of celestial or non-celestial weapons.

Let me know in comments if I had missed any of the categories here. Please remember, these five categories forms major chunk of stories in Indian mythologies, there may be exception of these categories too.


©Tapas Majumdar