hnu
and Siva had correspondingly grown in power and finally had come to
be recognised as themselves orthodox. Brahma, as his name implies, is
the ideal Brahman sage, and typifies Vedic orthodoxy. He is
represented as everlastingly chanting the four Vedas from his four
mouths (for he has four heads), and he bears the water-pot and rosary
of eleocarpus berries, the symbols of the Brahman ascetic. But Vedic
orthodoxy had to make way for more fascinating cults, and the Vedic
Brahman typified in the god Brahma sank into comparative unimportance
beside the sectarian ascetics. Still the old god, though shorn of much
of his glory, was by no means driven from the field. The new churches
looked with reverence upon his Vedas, and often claimed them as divine
authority for their doctrines; and though each of them asserted that
its particular god, Siva or Vishnu, was the Supreme Being, and
ultimately the only being, both of them allowed Brahma to retain his
old office of creator, it being of course understood that he held it
as a subordinate of the Supreme, Siva or Vishnu as the case might be.
Meanwhile, at any rate between the third and the sixth centuries,
there existed a small fraternity who regarded Brahma as the Supreme,
and therefore as identical with the abstract Brahma; but although they
have left a record of their doctrines in the Markandeya-purana and the
Padma-purana, they have had little influence on Indian religion in
general.

[Footnote 34: Those are at Pushkar in Rajputana, Dudahi in
Bundelkhand, Khed Brahma in Idar State, and Kodakkal in Malabar.]

A love of system--unfortunately not always effectual--is a notable
feature of the Hindu mind in dealing with most subjects, from grammar
to _Ars Amoris_; and this instinct inspired some unknown theologian
with the idea of harmonising the three gods into a unity by
representing in one compound form or _Trimurti_ Brahma as creator,
Vishnu as the sustaining power in the universe, and Siva as the force
of dissolution which periodically brings the cosmos to an end and
necessitates in due course new cycles of being.[35] This ingenious
plan has the advantage that it is without prejudice to the religion of
any of the gods concerned, for all the three members of this trinity
are subordinate to the Supreme Being, or Param Brahma, whom the
Vaishnavas identify with Vishnu in his highest phase, Para-Vasudeva,
and distinguish from his lower phase, the Vishnu of this compound,
while t