creation

the hero

goddesses

gods

tricksters

afterlife

love

Brahma

Brahma, the creator and giver of boons, is a frequent figure in the later mythology, usually in a subordinate role to the other two great gods, Vishnu and Shiva. There does seem to have been a period during the early centuries AD when Brahma was the focus of the cult, presumable as the creator deity; however, this ehas long gone. There are several passages in the epics where Brahma, also called Pitamaha, the Grand Father, is credited with some of the cosmogonic myths associated in the later Vedic period with Prajapati. Amoung them is the story of how he produces a lovely young woman, as a daughter, from his own body. He is smitten with her beauty, and she walks around him as a gesture of respect, his wish to stare at her beauty causes a succession of faces to appear. The union of father and daughter produces Manu, the first man.

As he meditates, Brahma emits from himself both the material elements of the universe and the concepts through which we understand them. The duration of the universe is counted in terms of Brahma's lifespan of a hundred years, each made up of 360 days, which are each equal to 1000 years of the gods, each day of which makes a human year. In each day of Brahma the universe is created; in each night it is reabsorbed. Within each cycle, from emanation to dissolution, there are four successive ages, from the best, the Krita Yuga, to the wors, the Kali Yuga. Eventually, Brahma's creative activity is trivialized into a readiness to grant boons to anyone who performs penance or asceticism, regardless of the consequences.