Brahma, distinct from Brahman, the all-pervading Eternal Spirit, is the first member of the Hindu Triad, the other two being Vishnu and Shiva. Brahma’s principal function is creation. The concept of the Hindu triad does not seem to have come into vogue until the advent of the Pauranic period, for in the time of Yaska, the deities who were generally grouped together as the triad were Agni, Vayu or Indra and Surya. According to Brindavan Bhattacharya, the above-mentioned Vedic gods were replaced by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva during the Pauranic period.
Allegorical meaning of the Hindu triad
With regards to the allegorical meaning of the triad, these gods represent the three fundamental stages of life, namely childhood, youth and old age or Brahmachari, Gruhasta and Sannyasi. Brahma’s features are exactly those of a Brahmachari, he holds a kamandalu, puts on a kashaya cloth and carries the Vedas, all of which are the requisites of a young Brahmachari. Metaphysically, the triad represents the three Gunas (principles) of the universe, namely Rajas (activity), Sattva (intelligence) and Tamas (inertia). Mythologically, Brahma created the world; Vishnu preserves the creation by removing the destructive elements in his various incarnations; and Shiva is responsible for pralaya or the dissolution of the world.
Prajapati, the creator during the Vedic period
We do not come across the name Brahma in the Vedic literature. The idea of the creator was present, but this creator was not yet identified with Brahma. The Rigveda mentions Prajapati as the creator and his name as a distinct deity occurs only four times. Prajapati became the most prominent god during the Brahmana period. The Brahmana literature presents Prajapati as a most significant god, and as a creator, he is identified with Vishvakarman. In the Brahmana period, Prajapati was not only the creator but also the preserver. The Brahmana period was the golden age of the institution of sacrifice, and Prajapati played a very prominent role in the foundation and development of this institution. The Aitareya Brahmana states that Prajapati desirous to propagate and to be many and having practiced tapas created the three worlds, from which arose three lights – Agni, Vayu and Aditya, from which arose the three Vedas.
Names and functions of various Vedic gods transferred to Brahma
Bruhaspati and Hiranyagarbha, independent divine figures in the Brahmana period and the early Upanishad period, came to denote the god Brahma in later times. Similarly, Prajapati’s function and name were also transferred to Brahma. In Mahabharata, Hiranyagarbha is the name of Brahma. According to Manu, Svayambhu, desirous to produce beings of many kinds, created a golden egg (Hiranyagarbha) and in that egg, he himself was born as Brahma and he is also named Narayana. Bruhaspati is often regarded as the forerunner or the prototype of Brahma. But in the Mahabharata, Bruhaspati makes his appearance as the domestic priest (Purohita) of the gods, an office that he held during the Vedic period, while Prajapati is mostly identified with Brahma, the creator. From this we can assume that Bruhaspati seems to fulfill a priestly duty, while Prajapati is the deity worshipped. Hence, of all the gods prominent in Vedic literature, it is Prajapati who has the greatest number of functional similarities with Brahma.
Antiquity of Brahma’s worship
Brahma was an ancient god and he assumed various forms and names in different parts of India at different ages. According to Tarapada Bhattacharyya, there was a pre-Vedic cult known as the Ratra cult, mainly and originally associated with a creator god Brahma. In the Brahmanda Purana there is a verse that says that Brahma was adorable in the Sathya Yuga, Sacrifice (the period of Vedic religion) in the Treta Yuga, Vishnu was worshipped in the Dvapara Yuga and Shiva worshipped in all four Yugas. This verse thus indicates that the earliest religion consisted of Brahma worship and the worship of Shiva was really associated with Brahma’s. A Buddhist text Niddesa, mentions Brahma among the several deities worshipped during Buddha’s time. In Varahamihira’s Brhatsamhita, there are rules for the construction and erection of the image of Brahma, thus proving the widespread worship of the god during Varahamihira’s time (5th or 6th century A.D.). The Devi Purana (Upapurana) composed around 600 A.D. refers to the independent worship of Brahma. Brahma is mentioned among the principal deities worshipped in the 7th century A.D. in Harsha’s plays and Bana’s Kadambari.
According to R.C.Hazra almost nothing can be known about the early history and character of the Brahma sect and the accounts which we find in the Markandeya Purana and Padma Purana are of comparatively late dates. But one clear factor about this sect was that it attached great importance to asceticism for the realization of Brahma, the Supreme Brahma.
Brahma was the god of Brahmanas and Rishis
The Brahmin caste must have a close relationship with Brahma as a god. This is evident from early Buddhist works like Majjhima Nikaya and Assalayana Sutta which claim that the Brahmins are the real sons of Brahma, they came from his mouth and were his real heirs. In Milinda Panha we hear that all men of those days, monks, itinerant teachers and Brahmins were worshippers of Brahma. Varahamihira gives a list of several sects that were flourishing a long time before his work was composed and here he mentions that the image of Brahma should be duly consecrated by Brahmanas well versed in Vedic lore and his worship should be according to Vedic rites, which shows that the main worshippers of Brahma were the adherents of the Vedic cult.
Tarapada Bhattacharyya opines that varnas (castes) were the names of different sects of India that existed in the pre-Vedic period. In the Puranas it is said that Brahma fixed the Brahma loka for Brahmins, the Indra loka for Kshatriyas, the Vayu loka for Vaishyas and the Gandharva loka for Sudras. From this, it may be inferred that the Brahmins were the original worshippers of Brahman or Brahma, Kshatriyas of Indra, Vaishyas of Vayu and Shudras of the Gandharvas. All these gods and sects were taken into a common homogeneous fold in the Vedic period, which gave a new form of worship of Brahma by introducing sacrifices and perhaps a new turn to the caste system.
Iconography of Brahma
According to Manasara, one of the standard works on sculpture, Brahma is represented with four heads, four hands, and one body. The palm on the left lower hand exhibits the posture of conferring boons (vara) while the right lower indicates protection (abhaya). The corresponding upper hands hold the water-pot (kamandalu) and the rosary (akshamala) or sometimes the sacrificial ladle. He is also sometimes shown holding a lotus and a manuscript of the Veda in his hands. His vehicle is a goose. He is attended by two goddesses, Sarasvathi on the right and Savitri on the left. Brahma with Savitri alone on his left side is called Prajapati Brahma and he has only one face. According to the text Rupamandana, the four faces of Brahma are symbolic of the four Vedas, the four yugas and the four varnas.
Worship of Brahma
It is said that vishesha puja for Brahma is forbidden and hence we rarely find temples exclusively dedicated to Brahma. However, in the triple shrine (tripurusha-prasada, trikutachala) for the tripurushadevas (Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara), Brahma is offered worship. But in the temples dedicated to Tripurushas located in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, the place of Brahma is occupied by Surya, the sun god.
Though temples dedicated to Brahma are rare, his figures can be found adorning walls, pillars and ceilings in temples belonging to other gods. Also at Ellora cave temples, a number of figures of Brahma are found, the most famous being his life-sized representation standing side by side with Shiva and Vishnu. Among the images of Brahma preserved in museums, the image of Trimurti, kept in the Peshawar museum, belonging to 3rd century A.D., has the three heads of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In the Indian museum we can find the four headed Lingam, representing Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Surya. A four armed standing image of Brahma is preserved in the British museum and at Mathura museum we can find the image of Brahma seated on a lotus flower.
Temples dedicated to Brahma
The text, Rupamandana which contains the description of the temple of Brahma, mentions its parivara-devatas, the dvarapalakas, etc., which clearly indicate that the building of a separate temple for Brahma existed earlier. In the Madras museum, there is a bronze image of Brahma (utsava-vigraha) seated under a prabhavali which clearly points to the existence of Brahma worship even with grand festivals and processions.
The temple of Brahma at Pushkar in Rajasthan is one of the oldest existing temples dedicated to Brahma. We do not know the exact date during which the original temple was built, as all the old temples in north India suffered greatly at the hands of the Muslim rulers. The existing temple was rebuilt in 1809 A.D., by Gokul Chand Parekh, at a cost of Rs. 1,30,000. A stone inscription in Hindi in the possession of the Mahant of the temple says that during the time of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh (1699-1743 A.D.), a Brahmin lady named Bai Phundi repaired the temple of Brahma in 1719 A.D. In the temple the image of Brahma is about the size of a man, has four faces, and is in a sitting posture, cross-legged.
Apart from Pushkar, temples dedicated to Brahma are found in Kheda-Brahma (belonging to 12th century A.D.) in north Gujarat, at Nagara-Mahasthana near Khambhat or Cambay in Gujarat (reference to this temple is found in Prabandhachintamani, a work by Merutunga, wherein it is said that when Chalukya king Siddharaja (1095-1144 A.D.) was camping at Nagara-Mahasthana, when the flag was hoisted at the Brahma temple here, the flags of all the Jaina temples in Gujarat were lowered as per the king’s decree), at Dudahi in Uttar Pradesh, and at Basanthgarh (dated 7th century A.D.) in Rajasthan.
Causes for the disappearance of the Brahma sect
In Mahabharata, it is said that when Brahma falsely claimed to have reached the top of the column (Sthanumurti of Shiva), Shiva cursed him, saying that he would never have a cult of his own. According to Sukumari Bhattacharji and Tarapada Bhattacharyya, these were mythological fabrications of the later period attempting to explain the actual absence or comparative rarity of the Brahma cult.
Jitendra Nath Banerjea says that the existence of feelings of jealousy and rivalry between various sects gave a free rein to the concoction of mythological stories and the construction of images in illustration to vilify the gods of their rival sects. For instance, Brahma is shown as Shiva’s charioteer in the latter’s Tripurantaka Murti or as his wedding priest in his Kalyanasundara Murti. Some Pancaratra texts, like Narada Purana and Bharadvaja Samhita write that gods such as Brahma should not be worshipped daily nor should ever be resorted to for the fulfillment of any desire.
Some scholars are of the opinion that the sect of Brahma became prominent during the period ranging from 200 to 600 A.D. and that the five gods of the smartas threw Brahma into the background towards the beginning of the 7th century A.D.
According to R.S.Gupte, till the middle ages, Brahma was an important god who was worshipped. Later, many false stories were circulated about his personal character, which may have led the people to lose faith in him. Brahma having four or five faces so that he could look at his wife wherever she turned, Brahma falling in love with his own daughter, and Brahma taking another wife when his first wife Savitri delayed coming for Yaksha’s sacrifice, were apparently stories invented by both Shaivites and Vaishnavites to belittle and disgrace him in the eyes of the devotees.
Earlier the field of creation was specifically assigned to Brahma. But later he had many rivals like Rudra, Dharma, Manas, Ruchi and Akrti, who were said to be mentally created by Brahma and were also called as Prajapatis. Another factor which probably led to Brahma’s decline in status was due to his mild nature.
Another plausible reason for Brahma, becoming rather unpopular among the devotees, according to Suresh Chandra was his granting of boons to Asuras without forethought. All the Asuras right from Hiranyakashyapu to Ravana received their boons from Brahma which made them singularly notorious for damaging the noble virtues of the world. Then it became necessary for Lord Vishnu to appear in his various incarnations to kill these Asuras. In the Puranas most of the Asuras are said to have obtained supernatural powers by a boon from Brahma and hence Brahma’s cult was considered mainly as a cult of the Asuras and that was one of the reasons for the decline of the sect of Brahma and his worship. The lack of his temples may have been another reason for the failure of the continuation of Brahma’s cult.
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Ithihas 