Brahma, God as creator, is represented as having four faces and hands. He sits on the lotus and his vehicle is a swan. The four faces of Brahma represent Four Vedas. Brahma originally had five heads but once in a quarrel with Shiva, the latter plucked his fifth head with his nail. Shiva then had the demerit of Brahmahatya which followed him. Shiva, in expiation, had to travel errand begging with a skull bowl in his hand, and it was only in the vicinity of Kasi that Shiva could get rid of the begging bowl or Kapala. This Tirtha at Kasi is therefore known as Kapala Mochana Tirtha. The fact that even Rudra could not escape Brahmahatya establishes the supremacy of the ethical principles.

The consort of Brahma is Savitri. At Pushkar, Brahma resolved to perform a sacred Yajna. Brahma was to perform it with his wife Savitri. At the appointed hour of the Yajna, Savitri was late as she was waiting for her female friends. The hour was so auspicious that Brahma would not let the moment pass without the intended Yajna. He therefore asked Indra to find a suitable girl for him to sit by his side as his wife for the Yajna. Indra secured a Gopa Kanya. She was thrown into a cow’s mouth and on her rebirth from the cow, she was called Gayatri. Brahma married her and kept his time. At this moment Savitri came. She saw Gayatri in her place and was highly enraged. There were curses, counter-curses, and then suggestions of the means to restrict the effect of these curses. Savitri cursed Brahma by saying that none would worship him. Savitri then went away to a hill to the south of Pushkar where there is still a temple dedicated to her.

One of the legends of Prajapati (Lord of progeny), is of incest with his daughter Ushas who ran away from him in the form of a female deer. Prajapati assumed the form a male deer and followed her. Rudra, angry at the incest, aimed an arrow at him. This myth is transferred to the sky where the deer (Mriga), the archer (Mriga Vyadha) and the arrow (Isu Trikanda) are still pointed out in the form of stars. Rudra represents wrath against incest & sensuality & the sublimity of the ethical principles.

Another legend is the fight between Narayana (Vishnu) and Brahma for supremacy. Both saw between them a column of light which was Shiva. Shiva asked both of them to find out the upper and lower ends of this light. Vishnu went down but returned unsuccessful . Brahma went up and though unable to find it out, fabricated the evidence of a cow and a ketaki flower. He was found out and this incidence is said to have made Brahma the last in the Trinity & one whose worship was avoided. This is another instance of Rudra insisting on truth, and meting out punishment on ethical principles even to the most highly placed. Brahma performed severe penance’s by way of expiation on the Gandhamadana Mount and then only his worship was restored.

Brahma, the one sole, self existing supreme self, the only real existing eternal essence, who exercises itself in infinite expansion, in infinite manifestations of itself, in infinite creation, dissolution, re-creation, through infinite varieties and diversities of operation.; the old supreme principle of the Vedas, was developed into the outer God in this secondary ‘Hindu Trinity’, Brahma still remains devoid of cult and schematic representation. The highest human manifestation of the eternal Brahma were called Brahmins, whose condition could not be changed and who sink or rise according to their actions in this life to their next birth. The Brahmins attributed all visible forms on earth, stones, mountains, rivers, plants, trees, animals, man and his emanation, to be emanations from this one entity Brahma. Between human beings and Brahma stood Demigods, supernatural beings, inferior gods and superior gods.