Brahmā

Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)
The Hindu Trinity
Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 212–226. He is associated with creation, knowledge, and the ''Vedas''. Brahma is prominently mentioned in creation legends. In some ''Puranas'', he created himself in a golden embryo known as the Hiranyagarbha.

Brahma is frequently identified with the Vedic god Prajapati.;
David Leeming (2005), The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Oxford University Press, , page 54, Quote: "Especially in the Vedanta Hindu Philosophy, Brahman is the Absolute. In the Upanishads, Brahman becomes the eternal first cause, present everywhere and nowhere, always and never. Brahman can be incarnated in Brahma, in Vishnu, in Shiva. To put it another way, everything that is, owes its existence to Brahman. In this sense, Hinduism is ultimately monotheistic or monistic, all gods being aspects of Brahman"; Also see pages 183-184, Quote: "Prajapati, himself the source of creator god Brahma – in a sense, a personification of Brahman (...) Moksha, the connection between the transcendental absolute Brahman and the inner absolute Atman." During the post-Vedic period, Brahma was a prominent deity and his sect existed; however, by the 7th century, he had lost his significance. He was also overshadowed by other major deities like Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi, and demoted to the role of a secondary creator, who was created by the major deities.

Brahma is commonly depicted as a red or golden complexioned bearded man, with four heads and hands. His four heads represent the four Vedas and are pointed to the four cardinal directions. He is seated on a lotus and his ''vahana'' (mount) is a ''hamsa'' (swan, goose or crane). According to the scriptures, Brahma created his children from his mind and thus, they are referred to as '' Manasaputra''.Charles Coulter and Patricia Turner (2000), Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities, Routledge, , page 258, Quote: "When Brahma is acknowledged as the supreme god, it was said that Kama sprang from his heart."

In contemporary Hinduism, Brahma does not enjoy popular worship and has substantially less importance than the other two members of the Trimurti. Brahma is revered in the ancient texts, yet rarely worshiped as a primary deity in India, owing to the absence of any significant sect dedicated to his veneration. Very few temples dedicated to him exist in India, the most famous being the Brahma Temple, Pushkar in Rajasthan. Some Brahma temples are found outside India, such as at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok.

Origin and meaning

The origins of the term are uncertain, in part because several related words are found in the Vedic literature, such as ''Brahman'' for the 'Ultimate Reality' and ''Brāhmaṇa'' for 'priest'. A distinction between the spiritual concept of ''brahman'' and the deity Brahmā is that the former is a genderless abstract metaphysical concept in Hinduism while the latter is one of the many masculine gods in Hindu tradition. The spiritual concept of ''brahman'' is quite old and some scholars suggest that the deity Brahma may have emerged as a personification and visible icon of the impersonal universal principle ''brahman''.Bruce Sullivan (1999), Seer of the Fifth Veda, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 82-83 The existence of a distinct deity named ''Brahma'' is evidenced in late Vedic texts.

Grammatically, the nominal stem ''brahma-'' has two distinct forms: the neuter noun ''bráhman'', whose nominative singular form is ' (); and the masculine noun ''brahmán'', whose nominative singular form is ' (). The former, neuter form has a generalised and abstract meaning while the latter, masculine form is used as the proper name of the deity Brahma.

Literature and legends

Vedic literature

One of the earliest mentions of Brahma with Vishnu and Shiva is in the fifth ''Prapathaka'' (lesson) of the '' Maitrayaniya Upanishad'', probably composed around late 1st millennium BCE. Brahma is first discussed in verse 5,1, also called the ''Kutsayana Hymn'', and then expounded in verse 5,2.

In the pantheistic ''Kutsayana Hymn'', the Upanishad asserts that one's Soul is Brahman, and this Ultimate Reality, Cosmic Universal or God is within each living being. It equates the ''atman'' (Soul, Self) within to be Brahma and various alternate manifestations of Brahman, as follows, "Thou art Brahma, thou art Vishnu, thou art Rudra (Shiva), thou art Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Indra, thou art All."

In the verse (5,2), Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are mapped into the theory of Guṇa

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