Brahma
Brahma names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Brahma bra'ma, the first person in the Hindu triad or trinity
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
bra'ma, the first person in the Hindu triad or trinity. Brahma is the Hindu creator. Vishnu and Siva, the other members of the triad, are the preserver and destroyer, symbols of good and evil, respectively. In a temple of Brahma at Pushkara, he is represented as having four black faces, each of which is directed toward one of the four quarters of the compass. Each face has two large glass eyes. The four-faced head wears a broad red turban, over which hangs an umbrella. The figure is dressed in red clothes. Brahma is reputed to be the author of the Vedas or sacred books. Inasmuch as he is merely the creator of all things, the Brahmins direct their worship to Vishnu and Siva more particularly. The Brahminical religion is older than Buddhism. It recognizes a system of castes. An important doctrine is the transmigration of souls. Infanticide and the burning of widows on their husbands' funeral piles were Brahminical practices. Brahminical worship consists almost entirely of sacrifices, ceremonies, and observances. See Buddha ; Caste ; India ; Veda
Brahma the name of the first of the three gods who constitute the Trimurti
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the name of the first of the three gods who constitute the Trimurti, or triad of principal Hindu deities. The epithets applied to this divinity are very numerous, some of the most usual being Swayambhu, the self-existing; Parameshti, who abides in the most exalted place; Pitamaha, the great father; Prajapati, the lord of creatures; Lokesa, the ruler of the world, etc.; Brahm, the essence of the Supreme Being in the abstract, devoid of personal individuality, to whose name so much reverence is attached that it is considered criminal to pronounce it, is said to have given birth to Brahma, Vishnu and Siva simultaneously; aneously; and to have allotted to the first the province of creating, to the second that of preserving, and to the third that of destroying. Accordingly, ever since the creation of the world, Brahma has had little or nothing to do, and it will not be till the 10th COCK ०००००००00000000000 0000000 800000 0000
Brahma WITH CONSORT SARASVATI avatar
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WITH CONSORT SARASVATI avatar, or incarnation, that his services tical reasoning; but throughout their will be put in requisition, when this world is to undergo total annihilation. Meanwhile, however, the other deities, Vishnu and Siva, are constantly engaged in their respective duties of preservation and destruction; and the Hindus lavish chiefly their adoration upon those divinities from whom they expect to derive immediate advantage. In the mythological poems, and in sculpture, Brahma Brahma is is represented with four heads, or rather faces, and holding in his four hands a manuscript book containing a portion of the Vedas, a pot for holding water, a rosary, and a sacrificial spoon. In the sculptures of the cave temple of Elephanta, he is represented sitting on a lotus, supported by five swans or geese.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The mythology described here is largely as Hindus still tell it, and the oddity Aiton's noted in 1910 persists: Brahma remains almost unworshipped, with the Pushkar temple still the best known of a very small number of shrines to him, while Vishnu and Shiva claim tens of thousands. What has shifted is the framing. Scholars now treat the neat "triad" or Trimurti as a relatively late and largely literary scheme rather than the organising fact of Hindu religion, and living practice is described instead through the Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta traditions; they also distinguish more carefully between Brahma the creator god and Brahman, the impersonal absolute that Collier's calls "Brahm." The social practices the 1910 entry lists as "Brahminical" — widow-burning and infanticide — had in fact been outlawed decades before it was written, sati by regulation in 1829.
Written for this edition, 2026.