god, to Carva, the trident-holder, the sun, Ganeca," but
with no mention of Brahm[=a]. The three gods, Brahm[=a], Vishnu, Civa,
however, are sometimes grouped together (but not as a trinity) in late
passages, in contrast to Indra, _e.g._, ix. 53. 26. There are many
hymns to Vishnu and Civa, where each is without beginning, the God,
the uncreated Creator. It is only when the later period, looking back
on the respective claims of the sects, identifies each god with the
other, and both with their predecessor, that one gets even the notion
of a trinity. Even for this later view of the pseudo-epic only one
passage will be found (cited below).

The part of Brahm[=a] in the epic is most distinctly in process of
subordination to the sectarian gods. He is holy and eternal, but not
omniscient, though wise. As was shown above, he works at the will of
Vishnu. He is one with Vishnu only in the sense that all is one with
the All-god. When Vishnu 'raises the earth' as a boar, Brahm[=a] tells
the gods to go to him.[21] He councils the gods. His heaven is above
Indra's, but he is really only an intermediary divinity, a passive
activity, if the paradox may be allowed. Not like Indra (to whom he is
superior) does he fight with All-gods, or do any great act of his own
will. He is a shadowy, fatherly, beneficent advisor to the gods, his
children; but all his activity is due to Vishnu. This, of course, is
from the point of view of the Vishnuite.

But there is no Brahm[=a]ite to modify the impression. There existed
no strong Brahm[=a] sect as there were Vishnu and Civa sects.
Brahm[=a] is in his place merely because to the preceding age he was
the highest god; for the epic regards Creator, Praj[=a]pati,
Pit[=a]maha, Brahm[=a] as synonymous.[22] The abstract _brahma_, which
in the Upanishads is the same with the Supreme Spirit, was called
personally Brahm[=a], and this Brahm[=a] is now the Brahmanic
Father-god. The sects could never get rid of a god whose being was
rooted alike in the preceding philosophy and in the popular conception
of a Father-god. Each age of thought takes the most advanced views of
the preceding age as its axioms. The Veda taught gods; the
Br[=a]hmanas taught a Father-god above the gods; the Upanishads taught
a Supreme Godhead of which this Father-god was the active
manifestation. The sects taught that their heroes were incarnations of
this Supreme, but they carried with them the older pantheon as well,
and, with the pa