Vedic Mythology c4.s1.9

c4.s1.9

In a similar strain to RV. 10, 129 a Brāhmaṇa passage declares that ‘formerly nothing existed, neither heaven nor earth nor atmosphere, which being non-existent resolved to come into being’ (TB. 2, 2, 9¹ ff.). The regular cosmogonic view of the Brāhmaṇas requires the agency of a creator, who is not, however, always the starting point. The creator here is Prajāpati or the personal Brahmā, who is not only father of gods, men, and demons, but is the All. Prajāpati is here an anthropomorphic representation of the desire which is the first seed spoken of in RV. 10, 129. In all these accounts the starting point is either Prajāpati desiring offspring and creating, or else the primeval waters, on which floated Hiraṇyagarbha the cosmic golden egg, whence is produced the spirit that desires and creates the Universe. This fundamental contradiction as to the priority of Prajāpati or of the waters appears to be the result of combining the theory of evolution with that of creation. Besides this there are many minor conflicts of statement, as, for instance, that the gods create Prajāpati and that Prajāpati creates the gods⁷. The account given in the Chāndogya Brāhmaṇa (5, 19) is that not-being became being; the latter changed into an egg, which after a year by splitting in two became heaven and earth; whatever was produced is the sun, which is Brahma⁸ (cp. Ch. Up. 3, 19^1–4). Again, in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (5, 6^1), the order of evolution is thus stated: In the beginning waters were this (universe); they produced the real (*satyam*); from this was produced Brahma, from Brahma Prajāpati, from Prajāpati the gods.