Trimurti (tri, three; murti, forms) is a common term in Hindu texts, referring to the triad of divinities BRAHMA, VISHNU, and SHIVA. Brahma is the creator god, Vishnu is seen as the sustainer of the world, and Shiva is seen as its destroyer. In theistic Hinduism these three are often seen as aspects of one divinity, either Shiva or Vishnu.
Shiva and Vishnu are the two divinities around which the two great Hindu sects, SHAIVISM and VAISHNAVISM, constellate. Brahma is not a sectarian divinity, and there are only two temples dedicated solely to Brahma in all of India. Though it resem-bles the trinitarian conceptions of Christianity, the trimurti is a much looser concept and was not emphasized theologically or theorized upon in any way as the Trinity was in Christianity.
Further reading: Anant Ramchandra Kulkarni, Buddha, the Trimurti, and Modern Hinduism (Nagpur: Kulkarni, 1980); Kurian Mathothu, The Development of the Concept of Trimurti in Hinduism (Palai: Sebastian Vayalil, 1974); Margaret Stutley, The Illustrated Dictionary of Hindu Ico-nography (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985).
Encyclopedia of Hinduism. A. Jones and James D. Ryan. 2007.