History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.18

v7.c95.18

In the Ṛgveda there are several hymns about the creation of the world in the 10th Maṇḍala (X. 72, X. 81 and 82, X. 90, X. 121, X. 129). For reasons of space all these cannot be set out at length, but some important texts will be mentioned. The main purpose of the hymn (X. 72) is to describe the birth of eight Ādityas. Ṛg. X. 72. 2 states²⁴³⁸ that Brahmaṇaspati brought about the (births of) gods like a smith (that works with bellows) and that in the primeval ages of the Gods' *sat* was produced from *asat*. In Ṛg. X 72. 4-5 and 8 it is said that Dakṣa was born from Aditi and Aditi from Dakṣa, that the gods were born after her (Aditi) and that from Aditi eight sons were born. The two hymns X. 81 and 82 refer to Viśvakarman who fashioned the worlds. X. 81. 2 and 4 ask questions 'what was the base²⁴³⁹ (from where he created the world), what was the material (out of which he fashioned the earth), what was the forest and the tree from which heaven and earth were chiselled out' and the third verse describes the one God as follows 'The one God who sees all round, whose face is turned in all directions, who has hands and feet everywhere, who when creating heaven and earth sends them forth with his (two) hands as with bellows and with wings' (as a bird is propelled). Ṛgveda X. 90 (containing 16 verses) is the famous hymn called Puruṣasūkta and postulates a supreme creator as a Puruṣa (called Ādīpuruṣa by Sāyaṇa) with a thousand heads, eyes and feet, asserts that all this that has come into being and that is yet to come is Puruṣa, that from Puruṣa arose Virāj, from whom arose (what we may call the second) Puruṣa (Hiraṇyagarbha) whom the gods offered as *havis* (oblation or *paśu*) in a symbolical sacrifice in which the three seasons, Vasanta, Grīṣma and Śarad were respectively the ghee, the fuel and the *havis* This hymn was probably composed at a time when, it appears, there was a firm belief (as in Śat Br. V. 2 4. 7, VI. 1 1. 3 and Tai. S. VII. 4. 2. 1) that nothing great can be accomplished without *yajña* or *tapas*. The hymn then proceeds to say that from that primeval *yajña* all animals (horses, cows &c), the four *varṇas*, the Sun, the Moon, Agni, Indra, the Veda, heaven and earth were produced. In the Atharvaveda XIX. 6 also there are 16 verses of which the first fifteen correspond with the first 15 verses of the Puruṣasūkta, but the order of verses is different and some of the words also are slightly changed. The Vāj. S. 31 has all the 16 verses of the Puruṣasūkta but it contains five more verses and a prose passage at the end. Ṛg. X. 121. 1 declares²⁴⁴⁰ that in the beginning Hiraṇyagarbha (the Golden Egg) was born; and verse 10 identifies him with Prajāpati and verses 8 and 10 declare that waters were produced by him from which issues forth Hiraṇyagarbha (the Golden egg), which was Prajāpati Himself. The second verse is quoted in n. 1440. Ṛg. X. 125 is a hymn placed in the mouth of Vāk (speech), wherein speech is portrayed as a power even beyond the gods and as creative. Three (1, 6, 8) out of the eight verses may be rendered here 'I move along with the Rudras and Vasus, with the Ādityas and Viśvedevas; I support both Mitra and Varuṇa, Indra and Agni and the two Aśvins. I stretch the bow of Rudra in order to kill the enemy, the hater of *brahma* (sacred prayer); I cause war for men; I entered heaven and earth. I blow like the wind, producing all the worlds; I am beyond heaven and beyond this earth; by my greatness (power) I have become such a one'. Here one must hold that the sage is not referring to ordinary speech or language but to the conception that word has creative power and that it is one with God or was the thought uttered by *brahman*.