There is no single story of creation in Hinduism, which originated on the Indian subcontinent thousands of years ago. According to the Vedas (the most sacred text in Hinduism), in the beginning there were three gods who together make up the Supreme One. These three gods are the creator Brahma, the preserver Vishnu, and the destroyer Shiva. In the nothingness of the beginning of the universe, Vishnu lay sleeping in the endless coils of a serpent, who was protecting his sleep. Out of the nothingness came a constant pulsing of energy that made a sacred sound, Om (or Aum). Vishnu hears this sound and awakens, ending night and creating dawn. A lotus flower formed at Vishnu's navel, breaking open and releasing Brahma. Vishnu said, “It is time to begin”, and subsequently commanded Brahma to “Create the world.”
Brahma separated the lotus flower into three parts: the earth, the sky, and the heavens. He then created all life forms, including man, from different parts of his own body. Together, Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma create and destroy universes continuously. Men and women were full of righteousness (dharma), but as time passed this made the gods fearful—what if humans could challenge their power? So Brahma created women as "sinful sorceresses" to distract men with desire. To accompany desire, he also created anger.
The Flood
Manu, the first man, was visited by a fish. In some tellings of this story, the fish is avatar of the god Vishnu. This fish/God told Manu that the world would be destroyed in a great flood. Manu builds a boat and ties it to the horn of the great fish, who guides Manu’s boat through the floods and to the top of a mountain. When the floodwaters receded, Manu performed a ritual sacrifice and poured butter and sour milk into the sea. After a year, a woman rose from the water to help Manu repopulate the earth.
Several Hindu texts also tell of how humankind then falls from grace and becomes corrupt and greedy. Humans had lived for four thousand years and had all their needs met without needing to farm, hunt, or gather. Now, desire and avarice spread, humans built fortresses and cities for protection, lifespans shortened, and they harassed each other in their struggle to live. Afflicted with hunger and at a loss for what to do, they approached Brahma for counsel.
Knowing that the earth had withdrawn her bounty, Brahma milked the earth, and from it sprang cereals and plants of all kinds. He then ordained that humans would farm and cultivate these plants according to their station—which was determined by their relationship to Brahma’s body.
When Brahma first created humanity, he did so through his own body parts: a thousand human pairs spilled out of his mouth. Another thousand pairs spilled out of his chest. A thousand more spilled from his thigh. Lastly, a thousand spilled from his feet. He now brought order to society through a hierarchical caste system based on which body part one’s ancestors had been born from: mouth, chest, thigh, or feet. Lastly, he established the four stages of a Brahmin’s life and laid out which afterlife was set aside for the different groups who behaved according to their station (later to evolve into the concept of karma).