Stories 12
Tradition: All traditions · clear
A day of Brahma
One day of Brahma is a kalpa of 4.32 billion human years, and his night is as long.
Brahma is born in the golden egg
A golden egg forms in the waters and glows like the sun.
How Shri became Vishnu's inseparable consort
The Vedic Shri of prosperity rises from the churned ocean as Lakshmi, surveys every being and chooses Vishnu as her husband.
Purusha and Narayana on the waters
The cosmic person of the Purusha Sukta and the Narayana who rests on the waters are fused into Vishnu's cosmic identity, pictured as Anantashayana.
Rudra, the howling archer of the Rigveda
The Rigveda addresses Rudra in three whole hymns and mentions him about seventy-five times.
Saraswati: daughter, consort, or both
Brahma's body splits into a male and a female half.
The birth of Kartikeya
Taraka can be killed only by a son of Shiva.
The golden womb and Prajapati
Before the gods there are only the primordial waters.
The mind-born sons, Narada and Daksha
Brahma wishes for children and brings them out of his own mind.
The sacrifice in dwarf form wins the earth
In the Shatapatha Brahmana Vishnu, as the sacrifice itself, takes dwarf form and strides the earth back from the asuras for the gods.
The three strides of the Vedic Vishnu
In the Rigveda Vishnu is a minor companion of Indra whose one great act is to pace out the cosmos in three steps.
Why Brahma has four heads
Brahma's four heads face the four directions and stand for the four Vedas.