Major Hindu Deities

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.

Center of the Hindu pantheon, or collection of recognized gods. In the early Vedic texts, the creator god was Prajapati (pronounced pruh-JAH-puht-ee), but over time Brahma took the older god’s place in many myths about the creation of the universe.

Vishnu (pronounced VISH-noo), the second member of the Tri-murti, 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 (pronounced SHEE-vuh) as aspects of him. Shiva, descended from the old Vedic storm god Rudra (pronounced ROOD-ruh), 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 (pronounced DAY-vee), “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 (pronounced PAR-vuh-tee), the wife of Shiva; Durga (pronounced DOOR-gah), the warrior goddess and fighter of demons; and the even more ferocious Kali (pronounced KAH-lee), “the dark one,” who also fights demons but sometimes becomes intoxicated with blood and destruction.

The popular elephant-headed, four-handed god Ganesha (pronounced guh-NAYSH) is Parvati’s son. One of the most popular gods in

This sandstone stele shows Vishnu in the form of the fish Matsya carrying the first man Manu and the sacred Vedas on its back to save them from the flood. © BRITISH MUSEUM/ ART RESOURCE, NY.

Hinduism today, he is associated with good luck and wisdom. Indra (pronounced IN-druh), 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 (pronounced VUR-oo-nuh), the guardian ofjustice 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 (pronounced KRISH-nuh) is one of the incarnations, or forms, 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 (pronounced MAN-oo), 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 (pronounced YUHM-uh), the lord of death, to release her husband from death.