Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c39.8

v2.c39.8

In ṚV, 10.129.1-7, the Vedic bard wonders how this universe originated. Muir translates the statement in the fifth hymn svadhāḥ adhastāt prayatiḥ parastāt (10.129.5) as ‘a self-supporting principle beneath, and (spiritual) energy aloft’. Our concern here is not with the spiritual energy of the Creator but with ‘self-supporting principle’ in this world of creation. B.Up. describes the cosmic evolution: ‘Initially the universe was only space. Gradually it condensed to form atmosphere and then water. The earth differentiated in the form of dense layer on the primordial water: