Brahma (Brahmā) is the creator deity of classical Hindu cosmology and one member of the familiar Trimūrti of Brahmā, Vishnu, and Shiva. In many Purāṇic accounts, he appears upon a lotus growing from the navel of Vishnu. He is tasked with organizing and populating the universe at the beginning of a cosmic cycle.
Brahmā is normally represented with four faces, traditionally associated with the four Vedas and the four directions. Through his mind-born sons, Prajāpatis, sages, and other progenitors, the many families of gods, humans, animals, and other beings enter creation.
Despite his immense cosmological position, Brahmā has relatively few major temples devoted exclusively to him. Hindu theology distinguishes him sharply from Brahman, the impersonal Absolute of the Upaniṣads. Brahmā is a cosmic person with a particular function; Brahman is ultimate reality itself. Brahmā therefore embodies creative intelligence—ordering possibility into a structured cosmos.
