Brahma, The Trimurti (or Trinity)
It is important in a discussion of mythology to present the iconography of the Trimurti, for it reflects the essence of Hindu philosophy. The three concepts of creation, preservation, and destruction are inseparable from one another: They represent the cycles of life, and also of liberation from the world of illusion by “death of the ego”—the wondrous attainment that is called “moksha.” The following brief descriptions of the gods and their roles will be helpful in understanding this.
Brahma represents the creative powers of the universe, creator of the worlds. He sets each great cycle of time in motion. In some depictions, he has four faces and arms, holding the four sacred Vedas or other sacred objects. As “the father of gods and men,” he was born in a golden egg. With his four faces, he pursued and won for his wife the female that he birthed from his own “ immaculate substance.” (New Larousse Encyclopedia Of Mythology, 1968:344) She is popularly known as Sarasvati, among other names, and is venerated as the goddess of music, wisdom and knowledge.
In artistic depictions, Brahma can ride either on a swan or a peacock, but in many representations he is seen sitting in meditation on a lotus that grows from the navel of Vishnu. In this aspect he represents austerity and the inward search of self-inquiry, as he was advised to engage in by Vishnu himself.
Given the interesting image of this relationship to Vishnu, it has been observed that Brahma is the “lord of wisdom from whose head the four Vedas are said to have sprung…[and] worshipped as the first member in the Hindu trinity. Though in earlier times the supreme god, in the later mythology he frequently occupied a position inferior to that of Vishnu and Shiva.” The emergence of the two strands of popular worship, the Vaishnavite and the Shaivite traditions, seems to reflect this.