Bhagwan Brahma

01Hiranyagarbha and the lotus

The Rigveda’s hymn to Hiranyagarbha (10.121) asks, refrain after refrain, to which Deva we should offer, and answers with the golden germ who was born as the one lord of all that is. The Puranas tell the same moment as a picture. At the start of a kalpa, Narayana lies on the waters; a lotus rises from his navel, and on it Brahma opens his four faces on an empty world. He performs tapas, hears the word tapa, tapa, and then brings forth the Prajapatis, the rishis and all creatures.

02Why so few temples

The Puranas give the reasons as kathas. In the Lingodbhava katha of the Shiva Purana, Brahma claimed to have seen the top of the pillar of light and brought the Ketaki flower as witness, and Shiva declared he would not be widely worshipped. The Padma Purana tells of the great yajna at Pushkar: Savitri was late, the muhurta could not wait, and Brahma took Gayatri as his consort for the rite. Savitri cursed that he would be worshipped at Pushkar alone. Her own temple stands on the hill above the lake.

03Where Brahma is honoured

Pushkar’s Brahma temple, with its red spire and the hamsa over the gate, is the best known; pilgrims bathe in the lake on Kartik Purnima, when the great fair is held. Yet Brahma is present in every Hindu temple: he stands in the northern niche of countless Shiva shrines in Tamil Nadu, he sits in the Trimurti caves of Mandagapattu, and at Prambanan in Java a whole shrine is his. Every Vedic yajna has a priest called the Brahma, who sits in silence and watches over the whole rite.

In the texts

• Rigveda 10.121 (Hiranyagarbha Sukta)
• Brahma Purana
• Padma Purana, Srishti Khanda (Pushkar)
• Shiva Purana, Vidyeshvara Samhita (Lingodbhava)

Utsav: festivals