Among the sixty-four sacred sports of Sundareswarar at Madurai is one that begins in Brahma's household. Saraswati dawdles on the way to bathe in the Ganga and is late; her husband, as punishment, has her split into forty-eight bodies, the number of letters in the alphabet. The letters become forty-eight men who make their way south to the Pandya kingdom, bow at Shiva's feet and set up the academy of poets, the Sangam, at Madurai. The Tamil literary tradition is thus traced to Saraswati's lateness and Brahma's sentence.
Thiruvilayadal Puranam, sports 33-64 (summary) — Karkanirka; Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam — Wikipedia
Sources: Thiruvilayadal Puranam, sports 33-64 (summary) — Karkanirka; Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam — Wikipedia
The Maitri Upanishad names Brahma, Rudra and Vishnu together as portions of one being, matched to the three gunas.
The sage Atri and his wife Anasuya earn great merit through their conduct and austerity.
A seven-metre three-faced bust fills the south wall of Elephanta's Cave 1.
Three Pallava shrines on one platform: Shiva in the centre, Vishnu on the right, and a disputed left shrine read as Brahma by Vogel but as Subrahmanya or Brahmasasta by later scholars; a Durga panel stands beside.
Before the gods there are only the primordial waters.
A golden egg forms in the waters and glows like the sun.
During the dissolution Vishnu lies on the serpent Ananta in the cosmic waters.
Shiva alone exists before the world.