History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.68

v3.c37.68

Rāma and Kṛṣṇa were worshipped as avatāras of Viṣṇu at least several centuries before Christ. Kālidāsa in the Raghuvaṁśa ( XI. 22 ) and the Meghadūta indicates that he regarded Vāmana as an avatāra of Viṣṇu as much as Rāma was. Similarly the Varāha and Narasiṁha avatāras are frequently spoken of in the Kādambarī. The *Trimūrti* i. e. the conception of the triune combination of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva into one Godhead is also an ancient one. The Mahābhārata ( Vanaparva ) gives expression to the idea that Prajāpati creates the world in the form of Brahmā, sustains it in the form of the great Puruṣa and annihilates it in the form of Rudra. Hopkins in his ' Epic Mythology ' p. 231 holds that this is a solitary passage about *Trimūrti* and is a late one and that the Mahābhārata in general has no doctrine of Trimūrti, but rather of the equality of Viṣṇu and Śiva. Kālidāsa in his Raghuvaṁśa (X. 16) and Kumārasambhava (II. 4)¹⁷²⁹ breathes the same belief. The temples of Brahmā are now very few and far between, the most well-known being that at Puṣkara ( Ajmer ). There is a temple of Brahmā in the Idar State and another at Sādhi in the Padra Taluka of the Baroda State. The Padmapurāṇa ( Sṛṣṭikhaṇḍa 17 ) shows that the worship of Brahmā had declined at that time owing, it is said, to the curse of Sāvitrī.