Markandeyapurana 45.62

45.62

mahadādyā viśeṣāntā hyaṇḍamutpādayanti te /
jalabudbudavattatra kramādvai vṛddhimāgatam //

By reason of their being governed by the Soul[29] and also through the favour of the Imperceptible, Mahat and the other principles, which have different limits, cause an egg to come into existence. There like a bubble on water, the egg gradually increased by means of the things that existed, O Sage most intelligent! In its enlarged state it lay on the water. The Soul,[30] having increased inside the egg sprung from Prakṛti, took the name Brahmā; it indeed was the first corporeal being, it indeed is called Puruṣa. And Brahmā existed first, the original maker of created beings. That egg enclosed all these three worlds with all that they contain moveable and immoveable. Meru was born from it, and as the after-birth were born the mountains; the oceans were the fluid contained within that egg which held the great Soul. Within that egg was all this world, with the gods and demons and mankind, and the continents and other lands, the mountains and oceans, and the throng of luminous worlds.