Why the Creator Has No Cult

The near-absence of worship of the creator god is itself a subject the tradition sought to explain, and the Puranas give several stories. In one, Brahma and Vishnu argue over which is greater, and Shiva appears as an infinite pillar of light whose top and bottom neither can find; Brahma falsely claims to have reached the summit, and for this lie he is cursed to receive no worship. In another, Brahma originally had five heads, one of which was cut off by Shiva.

Whatever the mythic explanation, the historical reality is that Brahma became a cosmological principle more than an object of devotion: his role in the myths is to set creation going and then to recede, and living Hindu practice centres on Vishnu, Shiva and the Goddess rather than on him. The one significant exception usually cited is the temple at Pushkar in Rajasthan, one of the very few dedicated to Brahma and an important pilgrimage site. Brahma should also be distinguished from brahman, the impersonal absolute of the Upanishads, and from the Brahmin priestly class, three related but separate meanings of the same Sanskrit root.