Garudapurana 1.4

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — 4
Rudra said:
Creation, secondary creation, genealogy, the eras of Manus,
and the deeds of dynastic lines—declare this, O Janārdana.

Hari said:
Hear, O Rudra: I shall proclaim creation and the rest, which destroy sins—
that ancient sport of Viṣṇu, ending with creation, maintenance, and dissolution.

Nara-Nārāyaṇa is the god, Vāsudeva, taintless,
the Supreme Self, the supreme Brahman, who brings about the origin, dissolution, and maintenance of the universe.

All this indeed possesses the nature of the manifest and the unmanifest;
likewise, it abides in the form of the Puruṣa and in the form of Time.

Viṣṇu is the manifest, as well as the unmanifest, the Puruṣa, and Time itself.
Listen to his activities, like those of a playing child.

Beginningless and endless is the Creator, boundless, the Supreme Person.
From him comes the unmanifest, and from him also the self is born.

From him comes intellect, from him the mind; from that, space; from that, wind;
from that, fire; from that, water; and from that, the earth arose.

Within the golden egg, O Rudra, the Lord himself
first assumes a body for the sake of creation.

Having become four-faced Brahmā, always with an excess of the quality of rajas,
he assumed a body and created this world of moving and unmoving beings.

Within the egg is the entire world, along with gods, asuras, and humans.
Viṣṇu, the creator, creates himself and protects what is to be protected.

And at the end he is withdrawn, the destroyer himself, O Hara.
Having become Brahmā, Viṣṇu created; Hari himself protects the world.

And taking the form of Rudra, he dissolves the entire world at the end of the kalpa.
Brahmā, however, at this time of creation, knowing the earth was immersed in the waters,

having assumed the body of a boar, lifted it up with his tusk.
I shall speak of the creations of gods and the rest in brief; hear, O Śaṅkara!

The first creation of Brahmā is that of the Mahat, which is formless;
the second is that of the subtle elements, which is known as the elemental creation.

The third is the transformational creation, known as the sensory creation.
Such is the primary creation, produced preceded by intellect.

The fourth is the primary creation, and the primary are known to be immovable beings.
That which is called the horizontal current is declared to be that of animals.

The sixth is that of the upward currents, which is known as the divine creation.
Then the creation of the downward currents, the seventh, is the human creation.

The eighth creation is the graceful creation, which is endowed with sattva and tamas.
These five are secondary creations, whereas three are known as primary creations.

The ninth is known as the Kaumāra creation, which is both primary and secondary.
Creatures, ending with the immovable and beginning with the gods, are of four kinds, O Rudra.

As Brahmā was performing creation, mind-born sons were born.
Then, desiring to create the fourfold [classes of beings]—gods, asuras, ancestors, and humans—

in these waters, he applied his own self.
From that Prajāpati of manifest nature, when the measure of tamas became excessive,

as he desired to create, the asuras were born first from his loins.
Then he cast off that body consisting of the measure of tamas.

That discarded body consisting of tamas became the night, O Śaṅkara.
Then the yakṣas and rākṣasas took delight in that body, and after that the gods.

Abounding in sattva, they were born from the mouth of Brahmā, O Hara!
That body consisting mostly of sattva, when cast off by him, became the day.

Therefore, indeed, the asuras are strong by night and the gods by day.
Then, taking a body consisting of sattva alone, the ancestors came to be.

And when cast off, it became twilight, standing between day and night.
Then, taking a body consisting of rajas alone, humans came to be.

And when that [body] was cast off, it became moonlight, which is called dawn twilight. / Moonlight, night, day, and twilight are indeed his bodies.

Assuming a body consisting solely of passion, hunger and anger arose. / Emaciated by hunger and thirst, feeding on blood, the rākṣasas [arose] because of protecting (rakṣaṇa);

those named yakṣas are to be known from eating (jakṣaṇa), and snakes indeed from creeping (sarpaṇa) of the hair. / The bhūtas were born from anger; then the gandharvas were born.

Singing speech, the gandharvas and the apsarases were born. / From his chest he made heaven, the sky; from his mouth he created goats.

The Lord of Creatures created sheep from his belly and flanks, / and from his feet outcastes, elephants, buffaloes, camels, and ewes.

Herbs bearing fruit and roots were born from his hair. / The cow, goat, man, sheep, horses, mules, and donkeys—

these they call the domestic animals; and learn from me the wild ones: / beasts of prey, two-hoofed animals, elephants, monkeys, with birds as the fifth,

aquatic animals as the sixth, and reptiles as the seventh. / From his eastern and other mouths, the Ṛgveda and the other [Vedas] were born.

From his mouth the brāhmaṇas were born, from his arms the kṣatriyas are recorded, / from his thighs the vaiśyas were created, and the śūdra was born from his feet.

The world of Brahmā is for brāhmaṇas, Indra's realm for those born as kṣatriyas, / the abode of the Maruts is for vaiśyas, and that of the gandharvas for those born as śūdras.

The world of Brahmā arises for those who abide by the vow of celibate students; / that of the Lord of Creatures is for householders who act according to what is prescribed;

and the abode of the Seven Sages is likewise for forest-dwellers; / an imperishable abode belongs to ascetics who always wander at will.

Thus ends the fourth chapter, named "Description of Creation," in the Ācārakāṇḍa of the first section of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.