Vishnu, the preserver: the churning of the ocean, the sage who kicked him, the trick that turned Shiva’s boon back on Vṛkāsura, and Brahmā’s search for his origin.
An asura named Wolf cuts the flesh from his own body to win a boon from Shiva, asks for a hand that kills whatever head it touches, and tries it first on the god. Vishnu saves Shiva with a lie. Read beside Simon’s offer to buy the laying on of hands, Ovid’s Midas, the devil’s…
