Deity Figure

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Major Figures

 

One is aware of different forms and names of ones deity. Each one has their own ability for their doings:

 

deity god or goddess

 

cosmic large or universal in scale; having to do with the universe

demigod one who is part human and part god

attribute quality, property, or power of a being or thing

pantheon all the gods of a particular culture

Brahma, the creator of life on earth, is one of the Trimurti, the three gods at the center of the Hindu pantheon (along with Shiva and Vishnu). In the early Vedic texts, the creator god was Prajapati, but over time Brahma took the older god's place in many myths about the creation of the universe.

Each role was diffrent:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deity

 

Role

 

 

 

Brahma

 

creator god

 

 

Devi

 

wife of Shiva, goddess who takes many forms—both kind and fierce

 

 

Ganesha

 

god of good fortune and wisdom

 

 

Indra

 

god of storms and rain

 

 

Shiva

 

avenging and destroying god

 

 

Varuna

 

originally a creator god and ruler of the sky, later became god of water

 

 

Vishnu

 

preserver god and protector of life.

 

Vishnu, the second member of the Trimurti, is the preserver or protector of life. His attributes are mercy and goodness. Some Hindus regard Vishnu as the supreme being and Brahma and Shiva as aspects of him. Shiva, descended from the old Vedic storm god Rudra, is the third member of the Trimurti. He is the avenging and destroying god, but his destruction allows new creation to begin. Sometimes Shiva is portrayed as a dancer who directs the movements of the universe.

Devi, "the goddess," is one of the most ancient deities of the pantheon. Under her name are grouped various female deities, who represent different aspects of Devi. Among them are Parvati, the wife of Shiva; Durga, the warrior goddess and fighter of demons; and the even more ferocious Kali, "the dark one," who also fights demons but sometimes becomes intoxicated with blood and destruction.

The popular elephant-headed, four-handed god Ganesha is Parvati's son. One of the most popular gods in Hinduism today, he is associated with good luck and wisdom. Indra, god of storm and rain, was one of the most important deities of the Rig-Veda and may have represented the warrior chieftains of the ancestral Aryan peoples. Vedic hymns suggest that Indra replaced Varuna, the guardian of justice and order, as the king of the gods. As the mythology of Hinduism developed, however, Indra in turn moved to secondary status below the Trimurti. Krishna is one of the incarnations, or avatars, of Vishnu. He appears in the Mahabharata and the Puranas.

Many stories about him focus on his prankish, playful nature and on his many love affairs.

Manu, sometimes described as a son of Brahma, is both a god and the first man, ancestor of the human race. According to one myth, a small fish warns Manu that the earth will soon be destroyed by a great flood. Manu takes care of the fish, which is really an incarnation of Vishnu, and when it is grown, it saves him from the flood so that he can repopulate the earth. The heroine Savitri, whose story is told in the Mahabharata, symbolizes love that defeats even death. She persuades Yama, the lord of death, to release her husband from death.

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