History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.26

v7.c95.26

Apart from the above-mentioned hymns that may be called creation hymns, the Ṛgveda contains many references to the creation or the support²⁴⁴² of heaven and earth by several gods and also creation of other things. In Ṛg. X 89. 4 Indra is said to have made from heaven and earth on all sides as the axle does the wheels. Ṛg. I. 154. 4 refers to Viṣṇu who single-handed supports the three, viz. the earth, the heaven (and antarikṣa) and all the worlds. Mitra is said to support heaven and earth (Ṛg. III. 59. 1) and to bear all gods (Ṛg. III. 59. 8)²⁴⁴³. Brahmanaspati (Lord of Prayer, Bṛhaspati) is said to have sent forth (blazed) the births of gods like a blacksmith and that in the primeval times of the gods *sat* was born from *asat*. Soma is said (Ṛg. VI. 47. 4) to have made the width of the earth and the loftiness of the heaven and supported the wide antarikṣa (mid regions) and in Ṛg. II. 40 (which is addressed jointly-to Soma-Pūṣan) it is said that one of them (Soma) produced all worlds and the other (Pūṣan, the Sun) goes overseeing or marking, the doings of the whole world (verse 5).