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Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s1: 1. Cosmography and Cosmogony

Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s1

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English

1. Cosmography and Cosmogony

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On the cosmographic and cosmogonic conceptions of the *Rgveda*, a distinguished authority has said, "Absolute definiteness or consistency in the statements of different poets or even the same poet could not reasonably be expected in such matters."¹ Another point to be remembered is that the hymns contained in the *Rgveda* were composed in a period covering several centuries,² so that whatever is mentioned in it may not be earlier than anything known from the other *Samhitās* and even the earlier *Brāhmaṇas*.

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¹ Macdonell, *Vedic Mythology*, p. 10.

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² Cf. Sircar, *The Śākta Pīṭhas*, p. 100. The *Rgveda* is assigned by some scholars to 1200-800 B.C., the other three *Samhitās* to 1000-800 B.C. and the *Brāhmaṇas* to 800-600 B.C. (*Camb. Hist. Ind.*, Vol. i, p. 697).

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The *Rgveda* indicates the earth by various words such as *mahī* (the great), *pṛthivī*, *pṛthvī* or *urvī* (the broad), *uttānā* (the extended) and *apārā* (the boundless). The universe was conceived as consisting of either two or three units, i. e. of either the earth and the sky (heaven), or the earth, the air (atmosphere) and the sky. Often each of these constituents was regarded as having three parts or layers, so that there were either six units of three earths and three heavens or nine units of three earths, three atmospheres and three skies.³ The highest of the three earths was believed to have been inhabited by men just as the third or highest heaven was occupied by the gods, the fathers and Soma.⁴ The conception of three earths and of the highest earth is based on the belief about the existence of a nether world. The *Yajurveda* and *Atharvaveda* speak of the earth, air, heaven and the world of light, i.e. the vault of the sky.⁵

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³ *Ved. Myth.*, p. 9.

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⁴ Cf. *Vedic Index*, Vol. ii, p. 16 ; see *RV*, i. 34.8, etc. ; *AV*, vi. 21. 1, etc.

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⁵ *VS*, xvii. 67 ; *AV*, iv. 14.3.

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The earth and the sky (heaven) were sometimes conceived as circular like was void and nothing existed at the beginning; the undifferentiated waters were enveloped in darkness and space; heat produced the one primordial substance; then arose desire, the first seed of mind.²⁸ This is the bond between the existent and the non-existent, and the gods came into being by this emanation. The *Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa*²⁹ says that nothing existed formerly—neither heaven nor atmosphere, which ‘being non-existent resolved to come into being.’ Here the creator is Prajāpati, the anthropomorphic representation of the Ṛgvedic ‘desire, the first seed of mind’. According to the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*,³⁰ the non-being became being which changed into an egg that split after a year and became heaven and earth, while the sun, which is Brahman, was also produced.

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²⁸ x. 129 ; cf. x. 82. 6 (wherein we have also the germ of the story of Brahman, the creator, appearing on the lotus springing from Śeṣaśāyi-Viṣṇu’s navel) ; 121. 7 ; AV, ii. 8.

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²⁹ ii. 2. 9. 1ff

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³⁰ ii. 19. 1-4. The *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* (v. 6. 1) says that it was all waters at the beginning and they produced *satya* from which sprang Brahman, thence Prajāpati and thence the gods.

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The starting point in these speculations is either Prajāpati desiring offspring and creating, or the primeval waters, on which floated the cosmic golden egg (*hiraṇyagarbha*) whence the spirit desiring and creating the universe is produced. “This fundamental contradiction as to the priority of Prajāpati or of the waters appears to be the result of combining the theory of evolution with that of creation.”³¹ The theory of creation is further developed in post-Vedic literature.³²

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³¹ *Ved. Myth.*, p. 14.

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³² Cf., e.g., *Manusmṛti*, i. 5ff. The world is stated here to have originally existed in the form that was unperceived, undifferentiated, incognitable and incognizable. It was brought into view by the self-born, unmanifest and inconceivable Supreme Being Hiraṇyagarbha who appeared by himself and, by mere willing, produced water out of his own body and threw in it the seed that became the golden egg. Hiraṇyagarbha himself was born in the egg as Brahman (also called Nārāyaṇa), the grandfather of the world. Brahman is the being produced by the unmanifest and eternal cause which partakes of the nature of the existent and the non-existent. The supreme Lord dwelt in the golden egg for a year and, by

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forth the sun. Aditi’s eighth son, Mārtāṇḍa, was cast away by his mother who brought him up to be born and to die (i. e. to rise and to set).

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Although the *Ṛgveda* knows the sea and refers to the treasures of the ocean (probably pearls or the gains of trade) and to marine navigation in the story of Bhujyu,³³ the important cosmogonic myth relating to the raising of the earth from the primeval waters by a boar, which later developed into the story of the Varāha avatāra of the god Viṣṇu, was conceived at a later period.³⁴ The idea appears to be connected with the conception of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*³⁵ describing the earth as girdled by the ocean. The notion of the earth being encircled by waters has not been traced in the Saṃhitās, even though it was the dominant cosmographical conception of the later ages as we shall presently see.³⁶

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³³ *Ved. Ind.*, Vol. ii, p. 432.

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³⁴ Cf. *JRAS*, Vol. xxvii, 1895, pp. 178 ff. Prajāpati assumed the form of a boar in raising the earth from the waters.

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³⁵ viii. 20.

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³⁶ The conception of the earth having oceans on all its four sides later developed into that of India (often mentioned as ‘the earth’) being bounded by oceans on the east, west, south and north, even though there is no sea in the north of the country. In the *Ṛgveda* (vi. 58. 3 ; x. 98. 12 ; cf. *Nirukta*, ii. 10), the word *samudra* (sea) is used in the sense of *antarikṣa* or *dyauḥ*, so that the *catuḥ-samudra* idea may have originated from the four quarters of the sky. But the ocean to the north of India may have also been suggested by the deserts of Central Asia (e.g. the Gobi), called the *vāluk-ārṇava* or sea of sands in the *Mahābhārata* (xvii. 2. 1-2 ; cf. *Rājatarangiṇī*, iv. 172, 279, 294 ; viii. 2763). See Raychaudhuri, *Studies in Indian Antiquities*, 1958, p. 57, notes ; Stein, *Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarangiṇī*, vol. i, p. 138, note.

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It is difficult to say whether the *Ṛgvedic* Aryans had any definite knowledge of the planets, although ‘the seven Ādityas’, ‘the five Adhvaryus’ and ‘the five Ukṣāṇaḥ (bulls)’ are regarded by different scholars as planets.³⁷ The *Taittirīya Saṃhitā*³⁸ regards Bṛhaspati (Jupiter) as the regent of Tiṣya, while the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*³⁹ applies the epithet *graha* to the sun. The *Maitrāyaṇī Upaniṣad*⁴⁰ uses the word in the sense of ‘a planet’ and the late *Taittirīya Āraṇyaka*⁴¹ seems to use the expression *sapta sūryāḥ* (seven suns) for the planets.

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³⁷ *Ved. Ind.*, s. v. *graha* (Vol. i, p. 243).

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³⁸ iv. 4. 10. 1.

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³⁹ iv. 6. 5. 1.

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⁴⁰ vi. 16.

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⁴¹ i. 7.

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his own thought, broke it into two parts out of which he formed heaven and earth and, between the two, the space, the quarters and the oceans.

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A passage in the later strata of the *Ṛgveda*⁴² speaks of Soma on the lap of the nakṣatras probably meaning ‘the lunar mansions’. The *Taittirīya*⁴³ and *Kāṭhaka*⁴⁴ Saṃhitās mention Soma as married to the nakṣatras whose number in given in lists as 27 (beginning with Kṛttikā) or 28 (counting Abhijit).⁴⁵

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⁴² x. 85. 2. The *Ṛgveda* also mentions Tiṣya, the Aghās (Maghās—plural) and Arjunī (Phalguni—dual). See V. 59. 13 ; X. 64. 8 ; X. 85. 13.

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⁴³ ii. 3. 5. 1-3.

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⁴⁴ xi. 3.

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⁴⁵ 4 . The *Taittirīya Saṃhitā* (vii. 4. 8. 1-2) and the Brāhmaṇas regard the full-moon in Phalguni as the mukha (i.e. beginning) of the year.

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