The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c18.24

c18.24

There was neither Existence nor Non-Existence;
The Kingdom of Air, nor the Sky beyond.

What was there to contain, to cover in—
Were there but vast unfathomed depths of Water?

There was no Death there, nor Immortality;
No Sun was there, dividing Day from Night:

Then was there only THAT, resting within ITSELF;
Apart from IT there was not anything.

At first within the Darkness veiled in Darkness,
Chaos unknowable, the All lay hid:

When sudden from the formless Void emerging,
By the great power of Heat was born that Germ.

Thereafter came Desire, the primal root of Mind;
Being from non-Being proceeded—this our Rishis know:

What was the Cause—above, below?
What vital force impell'd this parting here?

Who knows whence this was born, or how it came?
The Gods themselves are later than this time:

He only, the Creator, truly knoweth this;
And even He, perhaps, may know it not.