Devalok
How a tradition frames it · 2 tellings · Pan-India, Southeast Asia

Three faces of one Widhi

Balinese Hinduism reveres Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa as manifestations of the one ineffable Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, a formulation sharpened for state recognition.

Who is in it

Places: Bali

The story, beat by beat

  1. Bali worships Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa as the Trimurti of its temples and compass directions.
  2. Above them stands Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, described not as a person but as the ineffable source.
  3. The figure called Acintya, once a Shaivite form of Shiva, is used to represent him.
  4. When Indonesia required each recognised religion to profess one god, Balinese leaders set this supreme principle at the centre of Agama Hindu Dharma.

supreme principle trinity state religion

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Encyclopedia

Balinese Hinduism

Southeast Asia · Bali, Indonesia Southeast Asian Balinese

On Bali the three gods keep their Indian names and their places in the compass, but they are not the summit. Above Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa is Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, also called Acintya or Sang Hyang Tunggal, whom Balinese teaching describes as an absolute and unnameable source rather than a personal deity; the three are his manifestations. The dancing, radiant figure of Acintya had for centuries been a way of picturing Shiva within Bali's Shaivite stream. The clear statement of one supreme principle was pressed into shape in the twentieth century, when Indonesian law recognised only religions that profess a single God and Balinese leaders framed Agama Hindu Dharma to meet it.

Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa — Wikipedia; Balinese Hinduism — Wikipedia; Acintya — Wikipedia; Dewata Nawa Sanga — Wikipedia

Encyclopedia

Indian Puranic Trimurti

Pan-India Smarta

In the Indian Puranas the three are functions of one Brahman, but each sect sets its own god at the top; there is no separate named supreme above them shared across sects.

What is different here:

Bali names a supreme above the three and makes them his manifestations; India's traditions either subordinate two of the three to the third or treat all as Brahman.

Balinese Hinduism — Wikipedia

Sources: Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa — Wikipedia; Balinese Hinduism — Wikipedia; Acintya — Wikipedia; Dewata Nawa Sanga — Wikipedia

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