The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s2.1

v2.c39.s2.1

In the period of the Brāhmaṇas the god Prajāpati occupies without doubt or question the position of the creator god, the supreme god of the world. The commencement of legend after legend proclaims his creative activity, often figured under the form of the practising of fervour, a reminder of the cosmic heat, whence came forth the power enclosed in the shell according to the view of the hymn of creation.² The world egg appears as producing the heaven and the earth from its two parts, and, as Hiraṇyagarbha, it is the form of Prajāpati, in which he proceeds to immediate creation of living beings of all kinds, and the ordering of the universe. These tales, of which there is no end, often tell us that Prajāpati felt at the end of his efforts that he was empty, and had to be filled up again, always by some ritual process. The details of these stupid myths are wholly unimportant : it is enough to note that he is constantly the creator, the ruler, and the preserver of the world and is accepted by every Brāhmaṇa of the period as being the lord of the world : he is, it may be added, without any ethical importance : the conception of him is purely intellectual, that of the unity of the universe, and the choosing of Prajāpati as the symbol of this unity is one of the most striking proofs of the great influence of the Rigveda upon the period of the Brāhmaṇas.