Within the Purāṇic vision, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva appear as three great currents of a single cosmic process, each entrusted with a distinct function yet deeply interrelated. Brahmā is described as the creator, emerging from the lotus that springs from Viṣṇu’s navel, and undertaking what is often called “secondary creation”: the ordering of beings, worlds, and lineages from primordial matter. His four faces are said to signify the four Vedas and the capacity to look in all directions, while his association with rajo-guṇa links him to activity and the impulse toward manifestation. Viṣṇu, by contrast, is portrayed as the preserver and protector, reclining on the serpent Śeṣa upon the cosmic ocean, from whom Brahmā and the worlds emanate. His nature is aligned with sattva-guṇa, the quality of clarity and harmony, and he sustains the principle of dharma that holds the universe together. Śiva, often called Maheśvara or Rudra, completes this triad as the destroyer and transformer, responsible for the dissolution of the cosmos at the end of each cycle so that new creation may arise. Though associated with tamo-guṇa, the power of withdrawal and inertia, he is also depicted as beyond the guṇas in his highest aspect, embodying both fearsome destruction and profound auspiciousness.

The Purāṇas further deepen this portrayal by surrounding each deity with rich symbolic attributes and narratives that illuminate their roles. Brahmā’s four heads, his seat upon the lotus, and his implements such as the water pot and rosary all point to knowledge, sacrifice, and the unfolding of sacred order, even as his status is often shown as subordinate to a higher, transcendent principle. Viṣṇu’s blue form with four arms, bearing conch, discus, mace, and lotus, together with his consort Lakṣmī, expresses preservation, protection, and the sustaining power of fortune and grace; his avatāras, such as Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, dramatize the restoration of dharma whenever it declines. Śiva’s ash-smeared body, matted locks from which Gaṅgā descends, third eye, trident, and his forms as meditative yogī or cosmic dancer (Naṭarāja) convey both renunciation and the dynamic energy that creates, preserves, and destroys. In many Purāṇic strands, these three are gathered into the Trimūrti, where creation, preservation, and dissolution are understood as coordinated expressions of one ultimate reality, even as different texts elevate one or another—Viṣṇu, Śiva, or a formless Brahman—as supreme. From this perspective, devotion to any of them, when joined with right conduct, becomes a path into the same mystery that underlies and transcends all cosmic functions.