Trimurti (“Three Forms”): gods Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma
The trimurti (“Three Forms”) of Hindu gods: (from left) Vishnu (preserver), Shiva (destroyer), and Brahma (creator). Black schist sculpture from Bihar, Terai region, India, 10th century; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Trimurti
Hinduism
Trimurti, in Hinduism, triad of the three gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The concept was known at least by the time of Kalidasa’s poem Kumarasambhava (“Birth of the War God”; c. 4th–5th century ce). The Trimurti collapses the three gods into a single form with three faces. Each god is in charge of one aspect of creation, with Brahma as creator, Vishnu as preserver, and Shiva as destroyer. In combining the three deities in this...