Creator, preserver and destroyer — three functions personified as one supreme divinity
The word means 'three forms'
General knowledge · Religion & belief
The Trimurti
the grouping is established by the Puranic period, c. 4th century CE onwards
Hinduism — the three forms of the supreme divinity
The grouping of three great Hindu deities as one supreme divinity in three aspects: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer or transformer. The word means "three forms". In practice the three are not worshipped equally — Brahma has almost no cult of his own, while devotion is overwhelmingly directed to Vishnu, to Shiva, or to the Goddess, in the traditions of Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism. Their consorts, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati, are correspondingly grouped as the Tridevi.
How to spot them
- ▸Creator, preserver, destroyer — three functions of one divinity
- ▸Their consorts are Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati
- ▸The creator has four heads and, famously, almost no temples
- ▸Mounts: a swan, an eagle-like bird and a bull
Key facts
Four heads, a swan for a mount, and almost no temples — the great exception being at Pushkar in Rajasthan
Brahma, born from a lotus growing from Vishnu's navel
Ten descents, from a fish and a tortoise to a horseman who has not yet come
The dashavatara of Vishnu: Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki
A blue throat, from swallowing the poison churned up out of the ocean of milk
Shiva as Nilakantha; the churning of the ocean is the samudra manthan
A three-headed rock-cut sculpture in the caves on an island in Mumbai harbour
The Sadashiva or 'Trimurti' of the Elephanta Caves, 6th century CE
Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati are their consorts
Grouped as the Tridevi — learning, fortune and power
A four-armed dancer in a ring of flame, one foot on the dwarf of ignorance
Shiva as Nataraja, lord of the dance
One of them sleeps on a many-headed serpent floating on the cosmic ocean, with his consort at his feet
Vishnu on Shesha (Ananta), attended by Lakshmi; his mount is the bird Garuda
Key ideas
- The scheme is a theological tidying-up rather than a description of practice. Devotional Hinduism is largely sectarian: a Vaishnava will treat Vishnu as the supreme being of whom the others are aspects, and a Shaiva will say the same of Shiva.
Quick-fire facts
- •Trimurti means 'three forms': Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, Shiva the destroyer
- •Their consorts — Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati — are grouped as the Tridevi
- •Brahma is four-headed and four-armed, and has very few temples; the best known is at Pushkar in Rajasthan
- •Vishnu's mount is the bird Garuda; he carries a conch and the Sudarshana discus, and reclines on the serpent Shesha
- •Vishnu's ten principal avatars are Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki, who is still to come
- •Shiva's mount is the bull Nandi; his attributes include the trident, the crescent moon, the third eye and the Ganges in his hair
- •Shiva is called Nilakantha, 'blue-throated', for drinking the poison produced by the churning of the ocean of milk
- •Shiva as Nataraja dances within a ring of fire on the dwarf Apasmara, who represents ignorance
- •The three-headed sculpture in the Elephanta Caves near Mumbai, carved in the 6th century, is commonly called the Trimurti
- •Devotional Hinduism divides mainly into Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism, each treating its own deity as supreme
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Sources
- BBC Religion & Ethics — Hinduism at a glance
- World History Encyclopedia — Shiva
- World History Encyclopedia — Vishnu