Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation, shown with four heads and four arms, holding a manuscript, prayer beads, a water pot and a lotus, and riding a swan. Few temples are his own, but he receives worship in the temples of Shiva and Vishnu.
Meaning
The Himalayan Academy calls Brahma the name of God in his aspect of Creator. Saivites, it says, consider Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra three of the five aspects of Shiva, while Smartas group Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as a holy trinity; Brahma is not to be confused with Brahman, the transcendent Supreme of the Upanishads. A Kalighat painting of about 1890 in the Cleveland Museum of Art shows the usual form: four arms and four heads, a manuscript in his upper right hand for the source of sacred knowledge, a lotus in the lower right for birth, a rosary and a water pot in his left hands, and his mount, a goose, at his feet. The Himalayan Academy names that mount the hamsa, “swan”, more accurately the high-flying wild goose. Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, is his consort.
Origin and history
Brahma was born from Vishnu. A Pahari painting in Cleveland shows Vishnu asleep on the serpent Ananta before the creation of the world, a lotus growing from his navel and Brahma, the god of creation, born from it. The four heads, the museum says of a Chola sculpture, convey that his creative activities spread in all four directions; T. A. Gopinatha Rao quotes the Rupamandana that they stand for the four Vedas and the four Yugas, the ages of the world.
He once had five. In the Shiva Purana, as the Hindu American Foundation retells it, Brahma grew proud of his place as creator and began to encroach on Shiva’s work, until Shiva produced the fearsome Bhairava from a fingernail, and Bhairava cut off one of Brahma’s five heads, leaving him with four. In the story of the column of light (see Shiva), Brahma took the form of a swan and flew upward to find its top.
Is Brahma worshipped?
Yes, though rarely in temples of his own. Rao, writing in 1916, records the belief: no temples are dedicated to Brahma alone, there is no sect devoted to him, and some people think he receives no worship at all. “This opinion is far from the truth,” Rao answers. The niche on the northern wall of the central shrine of a Vishnu or Shiva temple should hold an image of Brahma, which must receive daily puja, and separate temples of Brahma exist in India, though they are “very few and far between.”
What Brahma holds
The Cleveland Museum’s Kalighat Brahma holds a manuscript, a lotus, a rosary and a water pot, the kamandalu. The manuscript marks him as the source of sacred knowledge, and the lotus refers to birth. In a Chola sculpture in Cleveland he holds the prayer beads, with matted locks piled on his head, and his raised right hand grants freedom from fear.
Read next
- Next in Hindu deities and their symbolsSaraswatiSaraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, learning, music and the arts, and the consort of Brahma. She is dressed in white, plays the veena, holds the Vedas and prayer beads, and sits on a lotus or a swan.
- The same shape in Buddhist symbolsMandalaA mandala is a sacred diagram of the universe in Hindu and Buddhist tantra, usually a circle enclosing a square palace with a gate in each side and a deity at its centre. Tibetan Buddhists paint it, build it in metal and lay it out in coloured sand for initiation and meditation.
See also
Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Murugan, Vishnu, Lakshmi.
Sources
- Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Brahmā), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Brahmā
- Dancing with Śiva: glossary (haṁsa), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. haṁsa
- All about the Shiva Linga (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “All about the Shiva Linga”, Hindu American Foundation, 2024, Hindu American Foundation, article text
- The Hindu roots of yoga: Shiva (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “The Hindu roots of yoga: Shiva”, Hindu American Foundation, 2023, Hindu American Foundation, article text
- Saraswati: A Wealth of Knowledge (Hindu American Foundation), “Saraswati: A Wealth of Knowledge”, Hindu American Foundation, 2016, Hindu American Foundation, article text
- Brahma (2003.148, Cleveland Museum of Art), Brahma, c. 1890, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.148, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Brahma-Shiva (2007.155, Cleveland Museum of Art), Brahma-Shiva, 900s, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.155, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Vishnu on Ananta, the Endless Serpent (2018.155, Cleveland Museum of Art), Vishnu on Ananta, the Endless Serpent, c. 1700, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2018.155, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
- Elements of Hindu Iconography, Vol. II, Part II, T. A. Gopinatha Rao, 1916, Law Printing House, Madras (Internet Archive, Wellcome Collection copy), Chapter XVII, Brahma
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
Added .