Brahmā

In post‑Vedic Purānic accounts summarized in the sources, there was an eternal primordial ocean from which Hiranyagarbha — the golden egg or womb — emerged. That egg broke open and Brahmā, self‑born (Svayambhu), came into existence; he then created the universe, the earth, and living beings. Textual layers show Brahmā identified or conflated at times with the Vedic figure Prajapati; attestations span Vedic conceptions through post‑Vedic and Purānic literature.

Traditional iconography recorded in the sources portrays Brahmā as a bearded man of red or golden complexion with four heads and four hands; the four heads symbolize the four Vedas and face the four cardinal directions. He is typically seated on a lotus and rides a hamsa (described variably as swan, goose, or crane). His offspring created from his mind are called Manasaputra (mind‑sons).

Brahmā's primary function in the textual tradition is creative agency: originating the cosmos, earth, and living beings and being associated with knowledge and the Vedas. In some Purānic cosmologies he is self‑generated (Svayambhu) from Hiranyagarbha. Texts also connect him to the origination of sacred law and ritual knowledge via his mind‑born sons. Historical accounts in the sources record that his cultic prominence declined by about the 7th century CE amid shifting devotional and theological emphases.