Trimurti

Proper noun

Trimurti

1. (Hinduism) The trinity of supreme divinity, as represented by the forms of Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the maintainer or preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer or transformer).
   • We now turn to the third Person in the Trimurti—Siva, the destroyer—but in doing so it is as well to remark that the character and attributes of the Hindu divinities are not very clearly defined, the special offices and qualities of one being often attributed to the other; thus Vishnu often appears...1874, Later Hindu Myths, in The Monthly Packet, New Series, Volume 17, John and Charles Mozley, page 481
   • We must first note that Hindus themselves were sober in their assessment of Trimurti, which was never a universally accepted doctrine. For instance, in the Tamil devotional tradition of the medieval Vaisnava saints known as the alvars, we find ambivalence toward "the three." Their hymns both...2011, Francis X. Clooney, “Trinity and Hinduism”, in Peter C. Phan, editor, The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity, Cambridge University Press, page 315