Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.11

c8.11

As is well known to all students of Ancient Culture and to anthropologists, primitive people all the world over think and act alike; hence naturally enough, certain basic principles run through all ideas regarding cosmogony. But cosmogonic legends of different countries tend to harmonize only after a time. These myths generally look up for the creation of the world from the fewest possible elements. Cosmogonical speculations in the Vedic period do not present any generally accepted theory as to the origin of the world: widely differing ideas about this problem appear to have existed, which were developed and harmonized by the poet-philosophers of the *Ṛgveda*. There is, no doubt, certain progress from crude and unconnected notions to more refined ideas and broader views.