How many gods exist within Hinduism? Is it a non-neglible fraction of all the gods humanity has ever believed in?
According to Srimad Bhagavatam, If gods is taken to mean devas, then it’s described that there 330 million devas. These are beings with superhuman but not supernatural powers. Considering what they can do, they would certainly seem supernatural to the average person, but in terms of being outside of nature, they aren’t.
There are plenty of other superhuman beings, millions of them, but they aren’t classified as devas which is usually translated as demigods or just gods with a small g, because they have assigned roles in the management of the universe and work under God who is the Supreme Being.
Because the devas control various aspects of us and Nature, many of them have duplicates outside of Hinduism. While not being exact copies there are often enough similarities to conclude that one account is based on another so they both represent the same person.
Above the gods is God.
God is one but has millions of expansions all of which are equal in terms of potencies.
Given all that, it’s certainly not a non-negligible fraction of all the forms of gods or God that humanity has ever believe in.
O brahmanas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water. Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.36
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