Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards with the creation of the universe. Who knows then whence it has arisen?

Whence has this creation arisen-perhaps it formed itself or perhaps it did not? He whose eye watched over it from the summit of heaven, He alone knows. Or perhaps even He doesn't know.

-Rig-Veda 10:129 If it's all an endless cycle of birth and destruction, where does the Hindu Creation begin?

Maybe the "One" knows. Maybe the "One" doesn't know. It all depends.

If these kinds of cosmic conundrums hurt your hair, welcome to the world of Eastern thinking. In Hindu tradition, as in other civilizations, explanations can run the gamut from the sublime to the profound to the profoundly enigmatic, and everything in between. Step up to the buffet table of Hindu Creation stories.

For starters, try the "cosmic egg" variety of Creation tales, of which there are several popular variations. In one ancient folkloric version, a supreme goddess lays three eggs in a lotus, and from them emerge three worlds and three gods-Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. When the first two of these gods refuse to make love to their "mother," she reduces them to ashes with her scorching gaze. But Shiva agrees to do the deed in exchange for the goddess's fiery third eye. Once he has received it, Shiva shows no mercy-he uses the third eye to incinerate his mother and revive his two sibling gods. Deciding to populate the world, the godly trio realizes that they need wives. So, they divide the remains of the cremated goddess into three ash heaps and, using the power of the third eye, create three goddesses. Together, these three gods and three goddesses populate the cosmos.

In another cosmic-egg story, a golden egg floats in the primordial waters. The golden egg is broken in half by the god Brahma in his role as the creator. The two halves of the egg shell then form heaven and earth. The mountains, clouds, and mists originate from the egg's membranes, the rivers from its veins, and the ocean from the egg's fluid.

There are at least two other cosmic-egg accounts of Creation. In one of these, all of Creation is simply contained within the unbroken egg. In the other, which is included in one of the Puranas, the Creation begins when the god Shiva appears in an androgynous form, and deposits his fiery seed in his female half. A cosmic egg is born of this union.

Unscrambling all of these eggs is tricky. So, set aside the divine hatchery and move to another popular vision of Creation, drawn from the Mahabharata, and frequently depicted in Indian art. In this tale, the god Vishnu lies resting on a many-hooded serpent-often a mythic symbol of regeneration, since it sheds its skin-whose numerous coils symbolize the endless cycles of time. When Vishnu assumes the form of an all-consuming fire that destroys the universe, rain clouds appear and extinguish the flames, leaving behind a great sea. Lying on the serpent floating in this immense sea, Vishnu falls into a deep sleep. A lotus sprouts from his navel, and within the lotus is Brahma, the creative force that sets in motion the process of regeneration once more.

Finally, in one Hindu version of Creation, man appears. Manu is the first man, son of Brahma and Sarasvati, and his story has clear parallels to that of Noah, Deucalion, and the other Mesopotamian flood survivors. When the world is threatened by a flood, Brahma takes the form of a fish and tells Manu to build a large boat and store on it all the seeds of living things on earth. As the floodwaters rise, everything is submerged, but Manu's boat lands on the highest peak in the Himalayas. Eventually the floodwaters recede, and Manu makes an offering to the gods, which produces a beautiful woman named Parsu. She and Manu become parents of the human race.

So, then, one might ask: where did the Hindu Creation begin?

One may never know. Even if the "One" knows.

How do you get ten gods in one?

Simple. Count their "avatars."

In the breadth of Indian myth, gods often appear in many physical forms called avatars. Based on a Sanskrit word meaning "descent of a deity from heaven" (American Heritage Dictionary), an avatar isn't simply a disguise that a god slips on and off-like Zeus becoming a thunderbolt or a swan and then turning back into Zeus again. Nor is it a simple manifestation, such as the goddess Ganga appearing as the Ganges River. An avatar is an entirely separate entity. In Hindu myth and theology, an avatar can be human or animal and have its own name, personality, physical characteristics, and purpose in life.

That means a goddess like Devi could be a benevolent mother-but her avatar Durga could be dark and destructive. A god's avatar could also take the form of a fish or a boar. Those are just two of the avatars of Vishnu, the central god most associated with these incarnations. Vishnu comes in at least ten different varieties, ranging from tortoise and dwarf priest to king and warrior hero. As Vishnu and the other divinities in this "Who's Who" amply demonstrate, each avatar provides the Hindu gods epic opportunities for adventures and miraculous doings.

WHO'S WHO OF HINDU GODS Although there are virtually thousands of gods in the Hindu pantheon, these lists include some of the chief deities worshipped in India throughout its long history. Part I includes the earliest gods in the Vedic pantheon. These gods are prominent in the Rig-Veda, and are part of the oral tradition that dates to the Aryan arrival in 1500 BCE. Part II comprises the gods and their manifestations who took a dominant role in the period after the establishment of the Hindu pantheon from about 600 BCE on. The earlier gods were not replaced but usually demoted to lesser rank and power.

Part I: "The Old Gods"

Agni The god of fire, Agni is one of the three chief deities of the ancient Rig-Veda. Although he appears in many guises, he is usually depicted with seven arms and a goat's head, or as a red man with many arms and legs, riding a ram, belching, and emitting light. Agni is more than simply a bringer of fire-he is the vital spark in nature that sometimes consumes in order to create. Manifested both as lightning and the spark of human imagination, Agni symbolizes the Hindu idea of rebirth through destruction. In his role as a "guardian" deity, he is believed to have made the sun and filled the night sky with stars.

When Hindus burn the bodies of their dead, they believe Agni dispatches their souls to heaven in the form of smoke and grants immortality. Among his symbols are a phallic stick used to start a fire by rubbing it in a wooden hole-a metaphor for the heat of the sexual act.

Indra In the early Vedic hymns, Indra is the king of the gods, chief god of sky, storms, and thunderbolts-much like the Greek Zeus. Possibly based on a historical Aryan warrior, he is a great fighter, a lusty drinker of soma-the nectar of the gods-and is often shown with a bloated belly full of the intoxicating beverage (see below). Already tall and powerfully built, Indra grows to enormous size and fills the heavens and earth when he drinks soma.

Indra's position and power result from his defeat of Vritra, the lord of chaos, a serpent-dragon who swallows the world's water and causes a drought. During their intense battle, the serpent swallows Indra and retains the upper hand until the other gods join the battle and gag him. When Indra jumps out of Vritra's mouth, he kills him using his thunderbolt, and then unleashes the monsoon, India's life-sustaining rains. Killing the dragon allows Indra to separate the waters from the land and causes the sun to rise every morning. (Once again, the story of a powerful god's victory over a sea monster or dragon of chaos is a very ancient and widely shared myth: Marduk-Tiamat, Seth-Apep, Zeus-Typhon, and Yahweh-Leviathan are all examples.)

Over time, as the myths of India evolved, Indra was reduced in rank, and many of his functions and powers were then taken over by Vishnu (see below). In a brief story symbolic of this transfer of power, Vishnu lifts an entire mountain with a single finger and uses it like a parasol to protect the people from Indra's torrential rains. Clearly bested by Vishnu's power, Indra assumes his lower station as a rain god.

Soma A certain American beverage calls itself the "king of beers." Soma might be the "god of beers." A most unusual god, Soma is the name of both a deity-the Vedic moon god-and a sacred beverage. As a deity, Soma is said to be the creator and father of the other Vedic gods-a sign of the importance of soma, the beverage of the gods.

In its liquid form, soma was evidently an ecstasy-inducing potion. Judging from its frequent mention in the Rig-Veda, soma was obviously a significant, if not indispensable, element of the ancient Vedic ritual. Either highly intoxicating or hallucinogenic, the "active ingredient" in soma has been the subject of considerable conjecture. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances, author Richard Rudgley catalogues many of the possible candidates for the source of this powerful party punch-including cannabis, ginseng, opium, some sort of "magic mushroom," and a plant called Syrian rue. Most of these, according to Rudgley, have been rejected, and the truth behind soma remains a mystery.

If "soma" sounds vaguely familiar, you may recognize it for two reasons. It is the brand name of a modern muscle relaxant, and it is also the narcotic widely used in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the English writer who was both a student of Hinduism and a noted experimenter with hallucinogenic drugs.

Surya Another of the oldest among Indian gods, Surya is the sun god, a dark red man with three eyes and four arms, who rides in a chariot. In the ancient hymns of the Rig-Veda, Surya is a god of almost unbearable intensity who causes the great heat of India's dry season. When Surya's intensity becomes too much for his wife, Sanjina ("conscience"), to bear, she transforms herself into a mare and goes to live in the forest. Surya follows her, transforms himself into a horse, and they mate, giving birth to the warrior Revanta and twin sons who are the ever-young and handsome messengers of dawn.

When Sanjina's father later comes on to the scene, he cuts away some of his son-in-law's brightness and these blazing fragments of the sun god fall to earth. These "sun-drops" are transformed into the weapons of the other gods-the discus of Vishnu and the trident of Shiva.

Together with Surya, Sanjina also produces the underworld god Yama.*

Yama Originally thought of as the first man in Vedic lore, Yama has a twin sister, Yami, who desires her brother. For resisting the incestuous desire, Yama is immortalized and comes to judge those who enter the underworld. As the god of the dead, he represents judgment, bringing happiness to the virtuous and righteous but bestowing suffering on sinners.

Part II: The Second Generation/Later Gods Brahman Set aside notions of God as a white-bearded man on a throne. Or any of the many other tangible forms that gods take in myths. Prepare for a separate reality. The most absolute, abstract form of God, Brahman is a concept-the soul of the universe, the essence of life, and the divine force that sustains the entire cosmos. Glorified in the Upanishads over all other forms of God, Brahman ("One that is multiple") is the absolute godhead-infinite, changeless, and impersonal.

But in Hindu mythology, Brahman becomes a real, living entity that gets involved in the affairs of the world by manifesting through a trinity of gods called the Trimurti. They are Brahma, creator of the universe; Vishnu, its preserver; and Shiva, its destroyer.

Confused by that? Consider for a moment the Christian notion of God-all-powerful, omniscient, creator of everything. But orthodox Christianity also teaches that this God exists in "three persons"-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Brahma, the Creator One of the three manifestations of Brahman, Brahma is called "lord and father of all creatures" and is regarded as the greatest of all sages as well as the first god. Born in one Creation account from a golden egg that floated in the primeval waters, Brahma is said in another version of the Creation to be the welling up of the Brahman's primeval essence. In yet another Creation account, Brahma emerges from a lotus that grows from a seed in the navel of the god Vishnu. The image of the lotus, a beautiful flower that floats above swampy waters, represents the Hindu ideal of living in the world without being corrupted by it. Brahma is said to have thought up the world while meditating, and is the father of both gods and men.

When Brahma is born, he has only one head, but he grows five faces so that he is always able to gaze on the beautiful Sarasvati. (In a later legend, one of these five faces is destroyed, still leaving him with the four he is usually depicted as having.) An ancient agricultural fertility goddess, Sarasvati-which is also the name of another of India's most sacred rivers-is born from Brahma's side and is also goddess of the creative arts, poetry, music, science, and language. Not only does she get credit for inventing Sanskrit, she gives birth to the first man, Manu, who is sired by Brahma.

In one legend, Brahma and fellow god Vishnu argue about which of them created the universe. As they debate, a great lingam-the word for "phallus" in Hindu terminology-appears, rising out of the ocean, crowned with flame. Staring into its vastness, Brahma and Vishnu see a cave deep within this creative phallus in which the god Shiva resides. Awed by his sight, they concede that Shiva is the ultimate creator.

Finally, a word about Brahma, the cosmic clock-keeper. If you think that time spent waiting at the doctor's office or in a supermarket checkout line is long, consider the awesome mystery of what might be called "Brahma-time." In the incredibly complex mathematics of the Hindu universe, a day in the life of Brahma-called a kalpa-lasts the equivalent of 4,320 million earth years. A "night of Brahma" is the same length. Divided into constant, smaller cycles, each of these kalpas ultimately ends as the world is consumed by fire and the universe is destroyed and recreated. According to Hindu thought, the current age is called the Kali-Yuga, the final act of a kalpa begun eons ago, a dark age that is approaching its end, after which the world will be destroyed once more and prepared for another cycle of creation.

In Midnight's Children, his prizewinning mythical novel of modern India, Salman Rushdie captures a sense of the vastness of this Indian concept of time and its impact on people:

Think of this: history, in my version, entered a new phase on August 15, 1947-but in another version, that inescapable date is no more than a fleeting instant in the Age of Darkness, Kali-Yuga, in which the cow of mortality has been reduced to standing, teeteringly, on a single leg! Kali-Yuga-the losing throw in our national dice-game; the worst of everything; the age when property gives a man rank, when wealth is equated with virtue, when passion becomes the sole bond between men and women, when falsehood brings success (is it any wonder, in such a time, that I too have been confused about good and evil?)...Already feeling somewhat dwarfed, I should add nevertheless that the Age of Darkness is only the fourth phase of the present Maha-Yuga cycle, which is, in total, ten times as long; and when you consider it takes a thousand Maha-Yugas to make just one day of Brahma, you'll see what I mean about proportion.

As Indian myth evolves, Brahma gradually recedes from the picture, and is overshadowed by two more active gods in the Hindu trinity-Shiva and Vishnu-along with a powerful mother goddess, Devi.

Devi The great mother goddess of Hindu myth, Devi is thought to be derived from the original Mother Earth goddess probably worshipped in the Indus Valley before the Aryans arrived. Devi, or Mahadevi ("the great goddess"), is the creative force, but also demands sacrifices. Like the male deities, she has many avatars, some of whom became wives and consorts-or Shakti-of the three gods. Many of the countless goddesses of Hinduism are considered aspects of this great goddess.

Durga The goddess Durga, which means "inaccessible" or "unapproachable," is a dark avatar of the mother goddess Devi. Emerging from the flames shot from the mouths of the male gods Vishnu and Shiva when they are battling a powerful buffalo-demon named Mahisha, Durga is fierce and physically imposing, with yellow-tinged skin and vampirelike teeth. Riding a lion while carrying a club, a noose, a sword, and a trident in her four hands, she seduces the buffalo-demon, captures it with a noose, and beheads it.

As Shiva's consort, Durga combats evil, rids the world of demons, and destroys ignorance. But in spite of her fearsome, violent, and combative origin and nature, Durga is also a goddess of sleep and creativity, and in that spirit is credited with introducing yoga to mankind.

Durga may not be aware of what she has wrought. A quick Internet search under "yoga" produces about 20 million results! There are probably few health clubs left that don't offer some form of yoga exercise, making this ancient Hindu form of discipline one of the most widely shared aspects of Hindu tradition in the world today. Essentially an Indian secret until the eighteenth century, yoga may predate the Aryan arrival in the Indus Valley, according to archaeological evidence. In essence, all forms of yoga are disciplines designed to link the physical body and mind with the unconscious soul, stilling the mind to allow a glimpse of enlightenment. The ancient Sanskrit root of "yoga" is the same for the English word "yoke," as in animals yoked together to work as one. While there are several types of yoga, the one most familiar to Westerners is hatha yoga, the series of breathing techniques and stretching exercises developed as a way to liberate the spirit by channeling energy through the spinal column to the rest of the body. It was originally intended as a preparation for the intensive meditation that is part of raja yoga ("royal yoga"), one of the four main forms of traditional yoga. Other popular derivations of yoga techniques are Transcendental Meditation, a form of yoga using the constant repetition of a divine name (mantra), and bhakti yoga, which involves the dedication of all actions and thoughts to a chosen god. Perhaps the best-known practitioners are members of the Krishna Consciousness movement, who constantly chant the name of Lord Krishna to achieve an ecstatic state.

Ganesha (Ganesh) A short, potbellied man who rides around on the back of a rat (or a mouse, in some traditions) and removes obstacles to success, the elephant-headed Ganesha is the god of wisdom, literature, and good fortune. The child of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha is told by his mother to guard the door as she bathes. When Ganesha refuses to allow his father, Shiva, to enter the bath, Shiva angrily decapitates Ganesha. To calm his angry wife, Shiva then replaces his son's head with the first one he finds-that of an elephant.

By invoking Ganesha's name at the beginning of any activity, a devotee opens the door to material success and spiritual growth.

Ganga Ganga is the water goddess of purification, divinely manifested in the Ganges River. Married to the ocean, Ganga must be careful not to descend to earth too swiftly from the sky-an obvious allusion to the threat of flooding-or she will wash away the earth. In legend, Shiva protects the earth from this threat when his matted hair breaks Ganga's fall to earth. Shiva then divides Ganga into seven rivers (the Ganges and its tributaries).

Kali When Indiana Jones has to confront the bad guys in The Temple of Doom, he is up against a very evil deity who demands the heart of sacrificial victims. This bloodthirsty Kali is not the product of the fertile imaginations of Hollywood's Spielberg and Lucas. The goddess Kali, who is known as "the black one," is the offspring of Durga and another dark avatar of the great goddess Devi.

Kali may be the most horrific of all goddesses-not just in India, but in all world mythology. Born from the forehead of Durga while she is fighting another demon, Raktavija, Kali springs forth to win the battle, destroy the demon, and then drink all of his blood so that it doesn't fall to earth and produce more demons. (In another version of Kali's birth, she is said to be the result of Shiva's teasing his wife Parvati about her dark complexion. In contemplation, Parvati sheds the dark skin, which becomes Kali.)