Editing Prajapati (section)

===Post-Vedic texts===
In the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', [[Brahma]] is declared to be a Prajapati who creates many males and females, and imbues them with desire and anger, the former to drive them into reproducing themselves and the latter to be being like gods and goddesses.<ref name="Leeming2010p144"/> Other chapters of the epics and Puranas declare [[Vishnu]] and [[Shiva]] to be Prajapatis.<ref name= Bhattacharji322/>

The ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' uses the epithet Prajapati to describe [[Krishna]], the eight incarnation of Vishnu in the [[Dashavatara]] of [[Vishnu]] along with many other epithets.<ref>{{cite book|author=Winthrop Sargeant|editor=Christopher Key Chapple|title=The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth–Anniversary Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COuy5CDAqt4C |year=2010|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-1-4384-2840-6|pages=37, 167, 491 (verse 11.39)}}</ref>

The [[Kalpa (Vedanga)|Grhyasutras]] include Prajapati as among the deities invoked during wedding ceremonies and prayed to for blessings of prosperous progeny, and harmony between husband and wife.<ref>[[Jan Gonda]] (1982), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062566 The Popular Prajāpati] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215195110/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062566 |date=15 February 2020 }}, History of Religions, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Nov., 1982), University of Chicago Press, pp. 131-132</ref>

Prajapati is the God of Universe, Fire, Sun, Creation, etc. He is also identified with various mythical progenitors, especially ([[Manusmriti]] 1.34) the ten gods of created beings which are first created by [[Brahma]]: [[Marichi]], [[Atri]], [[Angiras]], [[Pulastya]], [[Pulaha]], [[Kratu]], [[Vasishtha]], [[Daksha]], [[Bhrigu]], [[Narada]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Hindu Mythology|last=Wilkins|first=W.J.|page=369|publisher=D.K. Printworld (P) Limited|location=New Delhi|isbn=81-246-0234-4|year=2003}}</ref>

In the [[Puranas]], there are groups of Prajapatis called ''Prajapatayah'' who were [[rishi]]s (sages) from whom all of the world is created, followed by a Prajapatis list that widely varies in number and name between different texts.<ref name="Dalal2010p311">{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC |year=2010 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6|page=311}}</ref><ref name="Williams2008p234">{{cite book|author=George M. Williams|title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LOZfwCDpEC&dq=prajapati+williams+pandas&pg=PA234 |year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533261-2|pages=234–235 }}</ref> According to George Williams, the inconsistent, varying and evolving Prajapati concept in Hindu mythology reflects the diverse [[Hindu cosmology]].<ref name="Williams2008p234"/>

The ''Mahabharata'' and the genre of Puranas call various gods and sages as Prajapati. Some illustrations, states Roshen Dalal, include [[Agni]], [[Bharata (sage)|Bharata]], Shashabindu, [[Shukra]], Havirdhaman, [[Indra]], [[Kapila]], Kshupa, [[Prithu]], [[Chandra]], Svishtakrita, [[Tvashtr]]a, [[Vishvakarma]], Virana.<ref name="Dalal2010p311"/>

In the medieval era texts of Hinduism, Prajapatis refers to legendary agents of creation, gods and  sages who are working in creation, who appear in every cycle of creation-maintenance-destruction. Their numbers vary between seven, ten, sixteen or twenty-one at times.<ref name="Dalal2010p311"/>