Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.27

c8.27

The Brāhmaṇas contain many legends about Prajāpati having created the world. They usually open with some statement like the following: "In the beginning was Prajāpati, nothing but Prajāpati; he desired, 'may I become many'; he performed austerities and thereby created these worlds." Besides Prajāpati other names of the Creator are met with, viz: Svayambhū Nārāyaṇa, Svayambhū Brahman, and even Not-Being. The authors of the Brāhmaṇas being wholly engrossed with liturgy and ceremonial introduce these legends in order to explain some detail of ritual or the like; and therefore after a few general remarks on the creation of the world, they plunge again into ritualistic discussions. But the little information they give sufficiently shows the contemporary popular opinions about the origin of the world. Besides the usual statement about Prajāpati being at the beginning of things, there are others, according to which, the waters seem to have been believed to be coeval with him or to have preceded him. Full development of the conception of the world-egg theory is found in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa:¹³