The Gods

I have chosen to focus on the three main gods of Hinduism which are the Hindi believe are responsible for the creation, preservation and destruction of the world. These gods are called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Brahma

The god Brahma is the first triumvirate Hindi god and he was responsible for the creation of the world and all that live there. Though this seems to be of great importance, especially to western culture where the only god in most beliefs is solely amplified for the fact that he created the world, the god Brahma is not the most commonly worshipped god at all. From what sources I have examined, it seems that because the creation of the world is over people are less concerned with worshipping the creation god, while it is more important to worship the gods of preservation and destruction. Brahma is depicted as a god with four heads from which people have interpreted the four Vedas to have come from, and also the fourfold caste system.

Illustration of the god Brahma.

Vishnu

The god Vishnu is the second triumvirate god in Hinduism and is responsible for the preservation of the waking world. When there is extreme danger and an unbalance in the forces of good and evil in the world, Vishnu is said to be reincarnated to restore the peace of the world. Vishnu is a widely worshipped god and even has specific followers, called Vaishnava, who worship Vishnu in a monotheistic way. To the Vaishnava, the other gods are all lesser. The Vaishnavas interpret the extreme holiness of Vishnu through the mentioning of the god, multiple times and in relation with the Sun gods, in the most important of the Veda scriptures. The older texts of Hinduism do not acknowledge Vishnu so commonly and the more modern the texts, the more importantly Vishnu is portrayed. Vishnu is commonly illustrated as a blue-skinned figure with four arms and an object in each hand. 

Illustration of the god Vishnu.

Shiva

The god Shiva is the last triumvirate god of Hinduism and has the task of destroying the world so that it is possible to re-create it. Shiva is seen as a contradictory god who wields both evil and good. His change creates destruction but in the end something positive is made. Even on simply a day to day basis the Hindi people believe Shiva works to destroy the faults and illusions of the world. Shiva is a god whose emotions are untamed and constantly fluctuate from one extreme to the other. Like Vishnu, Shiva has followers who worship him as their primary deity, these followers are therefore named Shaivas. In representations of Shiva, the god is sometimes half man and half woman and other times fully a man. In the illustrations, Shiva is always smiling and tranquil even though he is the god of destruction. A cobra necklace, trident, vibhuti lines are also shown in the Shiva depictions.

Illustration of the god Shiva.