How many Hindu gods are there?

Hinduism comprises a wide array of traditions and beliefs and has varied across more than 3,000 years of history, and there is no consensus number of Hindu gods. Hindus may speak of a singular god, of many gods, or of the proverbial 330 million gods and goddesses. Both polytheism (belief in many gods) and monotheism (belief in one god) are aspects of Hinduism. Numerous Hindu traditions hold that the many gods are manifestations of a singular god. This coexistence of one god and many gods may initially appear contradictory, but a clearer picture emerges by tracing the history of how Hindu texts, traditions, and thinkers—and some Western scholars—have answered this question.

Ancient Hindu texts: Many gods, one reality

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In the Rig Veda (c. 1500–1000 bce), the oldest Hindu text, verse 1.164.46 lists multiple Vedic deities (devas) and identifies them as one entity that is variously described:

They say it is Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, and Agni, and also it is the winged, well-feathered (bird) of heaven [=the Sun].
Though it is One, inspired poets speak of it in many ways. They call it Agni, Yama, and Mātariśvan.

The very same question that prompts this article is posed in the ancient Upanishads. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 700 bce) the revered sage Yajnavalkya is asked by another sage: “How many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?” Yajnavalkya answers, “Three and three hundred, three and three thousand” (a figure sometimes rendered as 3,306). As the querying sage repeats the same question, the number of gods Yajnavalkya says there are decreases: 33, 6, 3, 2, 1½, and, finally, 1—identified as brahman, the all-pervading divine reality. The many are one, the one is manifold.

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Classical Hinduism: Many gods in one god

The Vedic gods that were worshipped in early Hinduism gradually developed into the gods of classical Hinduism whose stories are told in the Hindu epics and Puranas. Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti (or Devi), and their various avatars and related forms became the central deities of Hindu devotion. Many Hindus today identify as Shaivas, Vaishnavas, or Shaktas, sectarian groups that, respectively, worship Shiva, Vishnu, or Shakti as supreme, with all other deities considered as manifestations or subordinates.

The Bhagavad Gita (1st–2nd century ce) vividly illustrates the supremacy of one god who encompasses all others. In a well-known scene from chapter 11, the god Krishna—an avatar of Vishnu—reveals to Prince Arjuna his universal form (vishvarupa) that includes all the gods.

Arjuna, see my forms
in hundreds of thousands;
diverse, divine,
of many colors and shapes.


See the sun gods, gods of light,
howling storm gods, twin gods of dawn,
and gods of wind, Arjuna,
wondrous forms not seen before.


Arjuna, see all the universe,
animate and inanimate,
and whatever else you wish to see;
all stands here as one in my body.

Puranas and rituals: 330 million gods

The main myths of the gods of classical Hinduism were compiled in the Puranas, popular encyclopedic collections of myth and legend composed from about 350 to 1500 ce. Although they are strongly sectarian texts—some devoted to Shiva, some to Vishnu, some to a goddess—a plethora of other divinities populate the Puranas. It is in those texts that the proverbial number of 330 million gods and goddesses likely took shape.

Even if only proverbial, the figure of 330 million gods and goddesses reflects a vast inventory of divine beings found across texts, visual art, and the different towns and regions throughout India. The three main sectarian deities have numerous avatars, local forms, and variations. The Puranas and other Hindu texts are filled with divine beings who play roles in the mythology. Then there are family deities, caste deities, village deities, deities of geographical locations, and planetary deities (navagrahas).

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An adherent of one of the sectarian traditions—while holding Vishnu, Shiva, or Shakti as supreme—may also, for example, worship Ganesha before embarking on a journey, pray to Saraswati before a music performance, make an offering to the Ganges River (Ganga), or greatly admire Hanuman’s vibe. Some Hindus understand these myriad gods as manifestations of a singular transcendent reality while in practice they approach the gods separately through myths, temples, and rituals.

Vedanta philosophy: Think of one, worship many

One way to comprehend the many-and-one nature of divinity in Hinduism is offered by Shankara, the 8th-century founder of Advaita Vedanta (Nondualist Vedanta). Shankara distinguishes between a singular ultimate reality, brahman, that is all-pervasive, transcendent, ineffable, and formless (defined as nirguna, “without qualities”), and god (ishvara), who is accessible to worshippers and has myths, names, and forms (defined as saguna, “with qualities”). Shankara advises that worshipping gods with names and stories through devotional rituals and sacred images (murtis) is an acceptable step for some people on the path toward a more philosophical understanding of an all-pervasive ultimate reality. Thus polytheistic worship of deities and monist philosophy are not opposed but rather different ways of reaching the divine.

Modern Hinduism: Categories and encounters

When Europeans encountered Hinduism during the Age of Exploration, many saw it as opposed to Christian monotheism and derided it as a form of paganism. Yet some European philosophers were intrigued by the monism of Vedanta philosophy, whereas Evangelical Christians saw the same monism as a foundation for proselytizing Christian monotheism. The question of which Western category of theism Hinduism might be, and therefore how many gods there were, informed the interreligious and intercultural encounter.

When European scholars in the 19th century read Hindu texts closely, however, they found that their categories were not quite adequate. The scholar of religion Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) noticed that many Vedic hymns praise different deities using the same superlatives and ascribe to them the same mythological feats. Müller describes this tendency using the terms henotheism—the worship of one god as supreme while not denying that other gods exist—and kathenotheism—worshipping one god at a time and transferring the same superlative attributes of one god to the others. Western scholars also variously understand the concept of brahman in the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta as a version of monism (the oneness of all things), pantheism (all is god), or panentheism (god is the whole universe and beyond).

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As European scholars tried to understand Hinduism, Hindu reformers also reformulated their beliefs and practices in dialogue with European perspectives. Some Hindu reform movements that developed under colonialism insisted that Hinduism is monotheistic or monist. For example, Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833), who was familiar with Western intellectual traditions, denounced what he regarded as India’s superstitions and religious diversity, advocating instead Hinduism as strictly monotheistic. Vivekananda (1863–1902) promoted a humanistic form of Advaita Vedanta, and he denied that Hinduism was polytheistic or henotheistic in his “Paper on Hinduism” at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

These interpretations of Hinduism—by both Hindus and Western scholars—try to answer how many Hindu gods there are, but they also imply a question of how to represent Hinduism in dialogue with a non-Hindu audience. Trying to fit Hinduism into Western categories of theisms diverges from the tradition’s diverse history of ideas while mixing internal understandings with European perspectives and categories. Hinduism itself has long wrestled with the question of how many gods there are, and different answers have been proposed throughout its history, but none of those answers necessarily invalidates the others.