Do all Hindus actually believe in the literal truth of these things? Or do they simply hold them as representational allegories?
If you are a Hindu, you believe in it. All Gods are created in bizarre ways. If you deny their creation, you deny gods.
You'll meet Hindus who will tone down bizarreness by saying we believe in a higher being, not in those stories. But that cannot be true because how gods were created is at the root of Hindu beliefs.
@St-Sinner Follow-up question: were the myths originally intended to be taken literally?
There were told to make people believe and control them with fear of not believing and following. So you decide what people could do for thousands of years. As for now, the brainwash is so powerful that people follow beliefs coz partly they are afraid to defy and partly as respect for elders who told them to believe. I did it all to until I left that damn land 38 years ago and saw from outside how ridiculous it all sounded.
Almost imaginative...
Oh I'd say imaginative is an accurate descriptor. Now are these stories as imaginative as modern science? I don't think so.
Is it REALLY any different from talking snakes, burning bushes, parting seas, 1000-year life-spans, etc, etc, etc? (Actually...I was charmed to see Lord Ganesha and his rat ''consort'' all over India. If you've lost something---he can help!)