Information on the first god in the Hindu Trimurti - Brahma, its Avatar and its purposes

Hinduism has its own culture and philosophy and is one of the oldest religion in the world. Scientifically speaking all religions might had come from the same primitive root but still due to their geographical and sociological dispositions they evolved in different ways leading to their present structure. Hindu religion believes in three supreme entities which control the universe since its creation as these entities had powers to create as well as power to destroy also. More specifically, the creator is called Lord Brahma, the sustainer is called Lord Vishnu and the destroyer is known as Lord Shiva. This trinity is worshipped by the devotees in their individual forms throughout the Hindu or Hindu associated tribes and are the main Gods or deities in our culture and mythology. Hindu mythology is full of stories about the Gods and their roles in eradicating evil from the world and there are numerous narrations about their killing the demons who created havoc for the general public. All our scriptures are full of those things which are basically the winning of good over bad.

Lord Brahma is mentioned in our holy scriptures as the most important entity in creating the whole world. When we say whole world it means the whole cosmos that is the universe. Brahma was supposed to be having a great power in his lap to create matter and energy and that is how our scriptures has mentioned the creation of this universe by him. This creation is not exactly in physical form as Brahma was supposed to have spiritual and Yogic powers to create worldly systems from their thinking and infinite energies that they contained in themselves. Present day science also advocates for interchange of mass and energy with each other but it could also be a possibility in those times when the world was created by these powers. It is very interesting to note that the origin of our holy scriptures that is Vedas are attributed to Lord Brahma only. Brahma is different from other powers like Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva in the sense that Brahma is considered the father of our Dharma (religion) and is situated at an academic and spiritual level well above in the hierarchy of the important Hindu Gods.

As mentioned in some old scriptures, Brahma is called Prajapati also. He is believed to be son of the supreme God and was existing in an energy form. When Brahma wished to create the universe then it is mentioned that he created water first and then by seeding himself in that nectar of life, emerged or born out of the water through a golden egg to take a form. Another narration is there which proclaims that Lord Brahma was born out of a lotus flower that emerged from the navel of Lord Vishnu. So, whatever be the form that Brahma was born, he took this form for many purposes to create the world at one go.

It is also mentioned in our great ancient books that to create the universe Brahma wanted some entities in form of assistants who would help him on his command to carry out certain tasks for creating such a big universe. So, Brahma produced from himself or from his energy or one can say that he gave birth to 11 forefathers (called Prajapatis) of present day humans and also created seven great sages or saints known as 'Saptarishi'. As these original entities were created just by the mental energy of the Lord Brahma, they were known as Manasputras. Today we know that these Saptarishi are actually the seven prominent stars moving around Pole Star (Dhruv Star / Polaris) in the night sky and are so conspicuous. This cluster of seven stars is known as the constellation of Ursa Major in western astronomical nomenclature. It is indeed a surprise that ancients were well aware of these constellations in details and were projecting them with analogies from mythology.

In the second scripture of Sikhs written by Guru Gobind Singh, it is mentioned that Lord Brahma had seven avatars. The details are as follows -

1. Valmiki Avatar - In this form Lord Brahma as saint Valmiki wrote the great epic Ramayana in Sanskrit language. Later it was rewritten in Avadhi language by the great poet Tulsidas. Ramayana is the great contribution of saint Valmiki to the Hindu society. It is the epic tale of Rama's victory over the demon Ravana.

2. Kashyap Avatar - Kashyap is one of the sages in the cluster of Saptarishi. He was described in various scriptures and his lectures to his disciples on medical matters are compiled in Kashyapa Samhita.

3. Dattatreya Avatar - He was also an Avatar of Brahma and is considered the first teacher in the world. He was also the teacher of Yoga. In Sanskrit he is known by Adi-Guru. It is mentioned that he learned from nature and then passed it on to others.

4. Vyas Avatar - Vyas or Ved Vyas is one of the important Avatar of Lord Brahma and was entrusted to write the great epic Mahabharata. He is also credoted for classification of Vedas.

5. Kalidasa Avatar - He was great Sanskrit poet cum dramatist and had written plays based on our culture and mythology. One of his plays that is Abhigyanshakuntalam got much fame and was translated in English also.

6. Chandra the moon God Avatar - The story goes that sage Mandavya cursed one brahmin Kaushika that he would die at sunrise. Anusaya, the wife of Kaushika, had magical powers and she stopped the sun rising and than the trinity requested her to release it and she obliged only if the trinity took avatar from her womb. So, Lord Brahma was the one avatar as Chandra the moon God.

7. Vikhanas Avatar - It is mentioned in our scriptures that Lord Brahma had taken Avatar as Vikhanas in the holy place of Naimisharanya and then Lord Vishnu himself taught him mysteries of worship through thirty two questions.

So most of the Avatars of Lord Brahma are in the nature of knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. Hence Lord Brahma is considered as an educational and teaching entity to facilitate the various generations during which these incarnations took place.

As per Hindu Mythology Brahma, the creator has taken two other avatars. They are
1.Chandra:
There was a Brahmana by name Kaushika. One day he irritated the sage Mandavya. The sage got annoyed and cursed him that he would die at sunrise. After knowing this Kaushika's wife who had magical powers made sun not to rise. So the whole world was in darkness. Then Brahma told the Sages to approach Anusaya. She is the wife of the sage Atri. He was a mind-born son of Brahma (Manasa Putra). They approach Anusaya and she managed to convince Kaushika's wife. Then Sun rose. Anusaya gave rebirth to Kaushika. Gods were very happy. They asked Anusayato to ask for wish which they will fulfil. Anusaya asked that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva should all be born as her sons. They accepted. Then Brahma incarnated as Chandra the Moon.
2. Vikhanasa:
The second avatar is Vikhanas. This avatar incarnated in the Naimisharanya. Lord Vishnu taught Brahma the thirty-two questions (Agamas). Vishnu is the originator of the Agama. Vikhanasa taught these to his students through whom these Agamas spread in the world. The names of his students are Atri, Marichi, Kashyapa and Bhrigu.
Sikh epics say that Brahma has seven incarnations.

There are many pages on google and videos on YouTube which reveal a number of things about the first god Brahma.
Usually people consider that the most important part played in sustaining the world is played by lord Brahma. And many people even think that Lord Brahma is the first person who created this universe.

Unfortunately these are all incorrect. As according to our puranas the first god is Lord Shiva. Once he was roaming around with his wife in Anandvan which is now known as Kashi. That moment his wife asked him to create another person who can look after the universe when he goes for deep meditation.
That was the moment when on the tenth part of the left portion of Lord Shiva, he rubbed 'Amrita' and after a few seconds Lord Vishnu originated. He was the most handsome in the whole universe and the halo around him was mesmerizing. He asked for his motive to be born in that universe. Lord Shiva answered him to meditate for some years and he will automatically learn his purpose of birth.
He started meditating and after many years of meditation many water bodies including rivers and its tributaries started emerging from his body parts. He thereafter completing his meditation slept in that water for some years. It was then, that from his naval Lord Brahma was born.
This complete narration can only be found in our Puranas and not on google or any other modern website which usually convey incomplete knowledge about our puranas and Vedas.
So, the concept behind this narration is that Lord Brahma isn't the first god rather he is the third god.
Although this is also correct that after lord Brahma was born, Lord Shiva created another form of his, who was similar to him in features and face but was not as pure and white like Lord Shiva and his name was Lord Rudra, who was the destroyer.

It is also a well known fact that Lord Brahma isn't worshipped anywhere in this world. There's only one temple of Lord Brahma in the whole world. The reason behind this is that once he had lied to Lord Shiva and being a God that wasn't permissible. Henceforth we couldn't find any temple of lord Brahma nor do we worship him.

According to the text of Purana, Lord Brahma is the Son of God and is often referred to Prajapathi. The birth of Lord Brahma has different stories and one of such a story says that Brahma was born of the supreme having the synthesis of Brahman and the female energy denoting to Maya. Wishing to create an universe, Brahman first created water and he placed his seed into the water creating a magnificent transformation into a Golden Egg from where Lord Brahma appeared.
The other legend says Brahma is self born out of a Lotus Flower growing from the navel of Lord Vishnu.
Structure of Lord Brahma -
Brahma is represented as having four heads, four arms and having a red complexion on account of red skin.He is devoid of weapons unlike other Hindu Gods. He holds a water pot, a spoon, a book of prayer or the Veda and a Lotus. He sits on a lotus and moves around a white swan having the magical ability to separate milk from a mixture of water and milk.
In the Hindu Cosmolology, the Universe exists for a single day known as Brahmakalpa The day is equivalent to four billion earth years with the culmination of the entire Universe getting dissolved. This phenomena is known as Pralay being repetitive in nature occurring at an interval of 100 years. This corresponds to Brahmas life - span.
After the death of Lord Brahma, he again emerges after the elapse of additional 100 years as his rebirth and the whole creation assumes anew.

As per our Hindu mythology, Bramha is not first and it is Mahadev (Lord Shiva) who is shapeless and more likely like a Fireball which can be related to the shape of Linga. It's from Lord Shiva, Vishnu, and Bramhadev came into existence just the way how a baby is born with the placenta attached from its mother. Bramha was then allocated with the responsibility to create, Vishnu to prevent the creations and Lord Shiva who is the ultimate would be responsible to Destroy /end it.