Vinayaka

Vinayaka is also well known as ganesha and ganapathi. He is widely worshiped in India. He generally described with elephant head and human body. Vinayaka has moosakam has his vaganam(vehicle). He likes mothagam as his favorite food. It’s believed that lord parvati has created lord vinayaka to guard her. One day lord shiva wanted to see lord parvati he restricts lord shiva and after a point of time lord shiva gets angry and cuts human head of lord Vinayaka. Lord parvati forces lord shiva to bring Vinayaka back to life, so lord shiva sends his disciple to search for an alternate head and finds only elephant head to match lord Vinayaka this is how  vinayaka got his elephant form.

Shivan

Shiva is the supreme god of shivaism. Shiva is mostly worshiped in lingam form. He is depicted as who lives in mount kailash residing with his wife parvati and his children lord ganesh and lord murugan. He is generally described with third eye on his forehead, crescent on his head with river ganga flowing from his hair, snake around his neck and trishula as his weapon. His devotees apply scared ash on their forehead. People worship him mostly on Mondays, pradosham and maha shiva ratri. People also chant “om namashivay”  108 times daily to receive his blessings. People worship lord shiva by offering vilva leafs, lighting oil lamps, offering naivaediyas.

Vishnavism

Vaishnavism is one of the three traditions within Hinduism who worships lord Vishnu as their main deity. Lord Vishnu is also well known as Narayana and Hari. Lord Vishnu is usually described blue in color and having four arms. He is depicted as holding lotus flower in lower left hand, a couch in upper left hand, a gada in lower right and sudarshana chakara in upper right hand. People worship lord Vishnu directly or either in ten forms. The most famous forms of his avatars are Rama and Krishna. These ten forms are well known as dashavatram and among the ten, nine have occurred in the past and at the end of kali yugam his last form will happen as lord kalki. 

Avatars

1. Matsya.
2. Kurma.
3. Varaha.
4. Narasimha.
5. Vamana.
6. Parashurama.
7. Rama.
8. Krishna.
9. Vishishtadvaita.
10. Kalki.

Some alternate names of Vishnu:

• Narayana
• Venkateshwara.
• Dasavtharam