page_title: Triple deity
section_title: Hinduism
hierarchical_section_title: Triple deity / Hinduism
caption_attribution_description: English: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva seated on lotuses with their consorts, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Paravati respectively. ca 1770. Guler, India. "The three greatest Hindu deities are shown here together with their consorts. They are sometimes regarded as a trinity, who together represent aspects of the supreme godhead. The four-headed Brahma, holding copies of the oldest Indian sacred scriptures, the Vedas, together with his consort Saraswati, symbolises the power of creation. Next to him the blue Vishnu, with his consort Lakshmi, represents the energy that upholds and preserves creation. To their right Shiva, with his wife Parvati, embodies the power of destruction. All three divine couples sit on lotus flowers, which are one of the most ancient Indian symbols of purity and spiritual power. This painting may have been made for the enjoyment of a local nobleman or ruler and was probably the work of local artists in north-west India."
context_page_description: A triple deity is three deities that are worshipped as one. Such deities are common throughout world mythology; the number three has a long history of mythical associations. Carl Jung considered the arrangement of deities into triplets an archetype in the history of religion.
  In classical religious iconography or mythological art, three separate beings may represent either a triad who always appear as a group or a single deity known from literary sources as having three aspects.
context_section_description: In Hinduism, the supreme divinity Para Brahman can take the form of the Trimurti, in which the cosmic functions of creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe are performed by the three deities of Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer), who are at the same time three forms of the one Para Brahman. The divine being Dattatreya is a representation of all three of these deities incarnated as a single being.
caption: The Hindu male triad of Trimurti with their respective consorts, who collectively constitute the female deity triad of Tridevi.
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