A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.295

Language: English

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The name Brahmā is not found in the Vedas and Brāhmanas, in which the active creator is known as Hiranya-garbha, Prajāpati, &c.; but there is a curious passage in the Satapatha Brāhmana which says: “He (Brahma, neuter) created the gods. Having created the gods, he placed them in these worlds: in this world Agni, Vāyu in the atmosphere, and Sūrya in the sky.” Two points connected with Brahmā are remarkable. As the father of men he performs the work of procreation by incestuous intercourse with his own daughter, variously named Vāch or Saraswatī (speech), Sandhyā (twilight), Sata-rūpā (the hundred-formed), &c. Secondly, that his powers as creator have been arrogated to the other gods Vishnu and Siva, while Brahmā has been thrown into the shade. In the Aitareya Brāhmana it is said that Prajāpati was in the form of a buck and his daughter was Rohit, a deer. According to the Satapatha Brāhmana and Manu, the supreme soul, the self-existent lord, created the waters and deposited in them a seed, which seed became a golden egg, in which he himself was born as Brahmā, the progenitor of all the worlds. As the waters (*nara*) were “the place of his movement, he (Brahmā) was called Nārāyana.” Here the name Nārāyana is referred distinctly to Brahmā, but it afterwards became the name of Vishnu. The account of the Rāmāyana is that “all was water only, in which the earth was formed. Thence arose Brahmā, the self-existent, with the deities.

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He then, becoming a boar, raised up the earth and created the whole world with the saints, his sons. Brahmā, eternal and perpetually undecaying, sprang from the ether; from him was descended Marīchi; the son of Marīchi was Kasyapa. From Kasyapa sprang Vivaswat, and Manu is declared to have been Vivaswat's son.” A later recension of this poem alters this passage so as to make Brahmā a mere manifestation of Vishnu. Instead of “Brahmā, the self-existent, with the deities,” it substitutes for the last three words, “the imperishable Vishnu.” The Vishnu Purāna says that the “divine Brahmā called Nārāyana created all beings,” that Prajāpati “had formerly, at the commencement of the (previous) kalpas, taken the shape of a fish, a tortoise, &c., (so now), entering the body of a boar, the lord of creatures entered the water.” But this “lord of creatures” is clearly shown to be Vishnu, and these three forms, the fish, the tortoise, and the boar, are now counted among the Avatāras of Vishnu. (See Avatāra.) This attribution of the form of a boar to Brahmā (Prajāpati) had been before made by the Satapatha Brāhmana, which also says, “Having assumed the form of a tortoise, Prajāpati created offspring.” The Linga Purāna is quite exceptional among the later works in ascribing the boar form to Brahmā. The Mahābhārata represents Brahmā as springing from the navel of Vishnu or from a lotus which grew thereout;

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hence he is called Nābhi-ja, ‘navel-born;’ Kanja, ‘the lotus;’ Sarojin, ‘having a lotus;’ Abja-ja, Abja-yoni, and Kanja-ja, ‘lotus-born.’ This is, of course, the view taken by the Vaishnavas. The same statement appears in the Rāmāyana, although this poem gives Brahmā a more prominent place than usual. It represents Brahmā as informing Rāma of his divinity, and of his calling him to heaven in “the glory of Vishnu.” He bestowed boons on Rāma while that hero was on earth, and he extended his favours also to Rāvana and other Rākshasas who were descendants of his son Pulastya. In the Purānas also he appears as a patron of the enemies of the gods, and it was by his favour that the Daitya King Bali obtained that almost universal dominion which required the incarnation of Vishnu as the dwarf to repress. He is further represented in the Rāmāyana as the creator of the beautiful Ahalyā, whom he gave as wife to the sage Gautama. Brahmā, being thus inferior to Vishnu, is represented as giving homage and praise to Vishnu himself and to his form Krishna, but the Vaishnava authorities make him superior to Rudra, who, they say, sprang from his forehead. The Saiva authorities make Mahā-deva or Rudra to be the creator of Brahmā, and represent Brahmā as worshipping the Linga and as acting as the charioteer of Rudra.