Brahmā is the creator of the three, and he is barely worshipped. That is the most interesting fact about him, and the tradition is aware of it: several stories exist specifically to explain the absence. This page sets out how the sources present him and what AdiVeda publishes.
The creator
He is the one who assembles: the worlds, the beings, the ordering of things. AdiVeda’s account of that first day is The First Day: How Brahma Created the World. In the Trimūrti he is creation, Viṣṇu preservation and Śiva dissolution — a scheme that is tidier in summary than in the texts themselves, where the three are not evenly balanced and the sectarian literature of each tends to subordinate the other two.
Why the near-absence of worship
The explanations offered are narrative rather than theological, and they are not consistent with each other. In the Liṅgodbhava account Brahmā claims to have found the top of the pillar of fire when he has not, and is cursed to go unworshipped for the lie — the story is told in The Pillar of Fire Without Beginning or End. Other Purāṇas give other reasons. What is worth noticing is that these are Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava tellings accounting for a fact about practice; they are not a neutral history of it.
Saraswati and Gayatri
Sarasvatī is his consort in the tradition, and it is through her that his part of creation acquires speech — the account is in The Goddess Who Gave the World Its Voice and The First Song. The Gāyatrī mantra, the most widely recited verse of the Ṛgveda, is closely associated with him in later tradition. Both are worshipped far more than he is, and AdiVeda’s holdings reflect exactly that imbalance.
What to recite
This is the only Brahmā text published here. Closely associated, and far more numerous:
- Gayatri Mantra · Gayatri Mantras (Vedic Deities) · Gayatri Chalisa · Gāyatrī Aarti
- Saraswati Chalisa · Saraswati Stotras · Saraswati Mantras
Related on AdiVeda
Sources
Creation accounts involving Brahmā appear across the Purāṇas, including the Bhāgavata and the Padma Purāṇa; the Liṅgodbhava curse belongs to the Śiva Purāṇa. The Gāyatrī verse is Ṛgveda 3.62.10.