According to the
Brahmanas, the
Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is described to be svayambhu and the cause of all life and the universe. The
Manusmriti describes the creation of Brahma from the Svayambhu, applied as a term to denote Brahman. The mind of Brahman is stated to have produced the golden, germinal substance that created the
Hiranyagarbha, the primordial egg, from which the creator deity manifested. The status of a deity as svayambhu is observed to vary according to literature and a given tradition. For instance, while the
Manusmriti and
Srimad Bhagavatam describes
Brahma to be Svayambhu, whereas the
Mahabharata asserts that Brahma manifested from the lotus that emerged from Vishnu, transferring the status from the former to the latter. The Srimad Bhagavatam also accords the status to
Svayambhuva Manu, the first man born during a given
age of the earth. ==See also==