Short answers, pulled from the story.
The main sacred texts of Hindu mythology include the Vedas, the Itihasas (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata), and the Puranas. Regional texts such as the Bengali Mangal Kavya and the Tamil Divya Prabandham also preserve Hindu mythological narratives. Widely translated fables like the Panchatantra and Hitopadesha carry mythological material as well.
The Vedic pantheon centered on a triad called the Vedic Triad: Agni, Indra, and Surya. Indra, god of the firmament and wielder of the thunderbolt, was the most popular deity of the Vedic age. Agni served as messenger between gods and humans, and Surya, praised in the Gayatri Mantra, was the solar deity associated with light and understanding.
The Mahabharata is seven times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined, making it among the longest literary works ever created. Tradition credits the sage Vyasa with composing it, dictating it while the elephant-headed god Ganesha wrote it down using one of his own tusks as a pen.
The Puranas are a large collection of narrative texts whose name means "old story" or "ancient tale." They were written down between roughly 250 and 1500 CE, with some lists counting eighteen major texts and eighteen minor ones. Unlike the Vedas, the Puranas were composed in accessible narrative form that could be heard and understood without priestly instruction.
Hindu mythology is physically linked to specific locations across India. Mathura is identified as Krishna's birthplace, Guptakashi in the Himalayas is connected to stories from the Mahabharata, and rivers such as the Ganga, Godavari, and Narmada are considered sacred. The Ganga is described in the myths as a heavenly river brought to earth through the prayers of the sage Bhagiratha.
Hindu mythology is now transmitted through mass media including television and comic books. The Mahabharata and Ramayana were adapted into widely watched televised series in the 1980s. The Tales of Durga, an Amar Chitra Katha comic series, retells the Devi Mahatmya and brings the story of the goddess Durga to contemporary audiences.