Cosmogony in Progress

Cosmogony in Progress The Creation Myths from R.gvedic to Brāhmanic Texts Julia M. Mendoza (IUCCRR Universidad Complutense de Madrid) 1 Introduction Usually, when we consider the cosmogonic narrative characteristics of the Vedic religion, the image that emerges is that of the Cosmogonic Egg. The myth tells the story of a flood of indeterminate waters in which, in the Primeval Age, an Egg is formed. Inside it rises a First Divinity, Prājāpati, and, after his birth, he produces the elements of the Cosmos the gods, the ásuras, and all the creatures including mankind with his words, his songs and his thoughts. Śatapathabrāhmaṇa XI 1.6.1 – 7. Verily, in the beginning this (universe) was water, nothing but a sea of water. The waters desired, ‘How can we be reproduced ?’ They toiled and performed fervid devotions, when they were becoming heated, a golden egg was produced. The year, indeed, was not then in existence: this golden egg floated about for as long as the space of a year. In a year’s time a man, this Prajāpati, was produced therefrom […]. He broke open the golden egg. There was then, indeed, no resting-place: only this golden egg, bearing him, floated about for as long as the space of a year. […] Desirous of offspring, he went on singing praises and toiling. He laid the power of reproduction into his own self. By (the breath of) his mouth he created the gods […].1 This is the version that we find in ŚB, the one that is repeated in its essence in the Upaniṣads, in the few texts that refer to it, since the cosmogonic myth is not one of the preferred ones there. In the text of the Chāndogya-upaniṣad (ChU), we can find an explanation that matches the elements of the Cosmos with the parts of that Primeval Egg and identifies the divinity that develops in the interior of that Egg as the Sun, who is also Brahmā: 1 English translation: Eggeling 1900, 12 – 13. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021 A. Bernabé Pajares und R. Martín Hernández (eds.), Narrating the Beginnings, Universal- und kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32184-0_2 5 6 Julia M. Mendoza ChU III 19.1 – 2.2 In the beginning this (world) was simply what is non-existing; and what is existing was that. It then developed and formed into an egg. It lay there for a full year and then it hatches, splitting in two, one half becoming silver and the other half gold. The silver half is this earth while the golden half is the sky. The outer membrane is the mountains; the inner membrane, the clouds and the mist; the veins, the rivers, and the amniotic fluid, the ocean. Nevertheless, this version from primeval times is not the beginning of the Vedic period, a version inherited and partially remodelled due to cultural and religious evolution, instead it is a point of arrival, a version constructed from the remnants of an old myth in an attempt to offer a lineal and coherent vision of the most remote origins and to open a path for new concepts and divinities that are more abstract, more philosophical and more in line with the speculative drift of the priesthood that modified and developed the old Vedic religion. In the first Vedic texts, a collection of hymns, the saṁhitas, a change of interest from the priests concerning the different stages of the process is perceivable, the discussion regarding the importance of one god or another in the origin of the Cosmos and the establishment of the order, the Cosmic Order, ṛtá, that forms our world, and the change that represents the interest to understand and explain its driving forces, the energy that triggered the first steps of creation, as well as the role that gods and rituals had in the process.3 It is not so much that the hymns of the oldest anthology, the RV, offer us a diachronic view of the process (which is natural), but that during those first stages of the Veda the actual myth is being constructed or reinterpreted. Or maybe, several versions of the cosmogony are fighting each other —versions that are not always coherent and that are frequently contradictory. In the Ṛgveda (RV), it can be observed how the priestly groups who compiled the text progressively develope a version that deals with the inconsistencies, which then somehow unifies the process, and serves the evolution of the religious concept that developed in the speculative ritual leading from the Veda to the classical Hinduism of the Upaniṣads and the ‘modern’ Hinduism of the Purāṇas. We have studied some parts of this process elsewhere,4 as long as the developments leading to a more abstract, philosophical, reformulation of the Cosmogony.5 We want to focus here on those first steps in the RV that ended up leading to the formulation of the Brāhmaṇas that, in turn, would then become the starting 2 3 4 5 English translation: Olivelle 1998, 215 About Vedic cosmogonic myths: Bhattarcharji 1970; Kuiper 1983; Varenne 1982; the general works about Religion and Mythology of the Vedas: Oldenberg 1894; Keith 1925; Hillebrandt 1929; Gonda 1960; Griswold 1971. Mendoza 2011a. Bernabé & Mendoza 2013; Mendoza 2011b. Cosmogony in Progress 7 point and the source of all subsequent speculation. We are going to try and show how the new cosmogonic version is constructed, the cosmogony in progress. In focusing on the RV, the first and oldest of the saṁhitas, we should remember that these texts are hyms of praise, composed and recollected for ritual purposes. They are not narrative poetics, and consequently they do not provide us with a single cosmogonic story, and that the allusions to the cosmogonic myth are not always coherent, but they choose a version in order to emphasize the importance of the presence of one god or another according to the hymn’s intent and its ritualistic role. This characteristic of the RV, that hinders the reconstruction of the old cosmogony of the Aryan, has been pointed out quite frequently.6 The general chronology of the RV as well as its different composition strata continue to be subjected to doubts and controversy, despite the fact that for the past 20 or 30 years there have been many proposals regarding the chronological framework of the RV (terminus ante and post quem) which were much more informed and reliable, based on a careful evaluation of the linguistic data, the geographical and historical references, the philological references extracted from subsequent works and from the grammar, and from an increasingly detailed study of the priestly families of the RV.7 The RV itself offers an internal chronological gradient, whose strata as been more precisely and carefully determined recently in the Works of Jamieson and Witzel (2002). Books 2 – 7 had been reputed traditionally as the oldest strata, the initial nucleus of the work,8 while the ones in book 10 and the first part of book 1 were added much later (though, always before the drafting of the first Brāhmaṇas). The ones from the Kaṅva family (book 8 and the second part of book 1) occupy an intermediate position, and already contain the speculative hymns that herald the philosophical tendencies of many hymns in book 10. In considering the process that leads to the development of a creation myth, we will take into account these two main strata in the RV: the six books of families, whithout establishing a difference between them, unless the texts lead us to do that, and the speculative hymns of book 10. We will use the material provided by the intermediate strata according to its internal references, as continuing the old points of view or in some way anticipating or explaining the origin of the new developments. 6 7 8 Kuiper 1983; Varenne 1982. Jamison & Witzel 2002; Witzel 1995a, 1995b, 2003. For a more accurate classification of those books: Witzel 1995b, 2003. 8 Julia M. Mendoza 2 Cosmogony in the RV: the books of the families In the oldest strata of the RV, we found many hymns filled with allusions to the origin of the world and especially to the process of establishing and consolidating the Cosmic Order, the Ṛtá, and to glorify and extol the great deeds of Indra, the principal actor of that moment of the establishment of order: the fight against Vṛtra, the monstrous cosmic serpent, that maintained the waters to be closed in: RV 1.32.5. Indra smashed Vṛtra, the very great obstacle, whose shoulders were spread apart, with his mace, his great weapon. / Like logs hewn apart by an axe, the serpent would lie embracing the earth.9 2.1 The Cosmogonic Act In these first books of RV, as well as in the slightly later and more speculative texts of the Kaṅvas, book 8 and the second half of book 1, the attention of the ṛsis is focused on the crucial moment of the creation process, that in which order is established and consolidated. It is the Cosmogonic Act, the fight between the god Indra and the monster Vṛtra,10 an oversized snake that coiled around the cosmic mountain and thus blocks the cave opening behind which the waters are locked away, preventing them from flowing, and therefore preventing the triumph of Order over Chaos, the latter seen as indistinctness and immobility.11 Vṛtra, just like other primeval beings, is not only huge, but it also presents an anomalous physique. It does not have limbs or joints, which makes it fall outside the taxonomic classifications12 characteristic of a world that is subjected to order: RV 1.32.7. Handless and footless, he gave battle to Indra. He [Indra] smashed his mace upon his back / A steer who tried to be the measure of a bull, Vṛtra lay there, flung apart in many places. We follow, as usual, Aufrecht’s edition (1968 [1897]), and have consulted the translations and commentars by Geldner 2003 [1951], Griffith 1976 [1951], Renou 1956 and Doniger O’Flaherty 1981. In order to avoid the problems of the double translation, our English excerpts of the RV have been taken from the recent and excellent translation by Jamison and Brereton (2014), with occasional differences indicated in the text. 10 This primeval serpent (áhi) also has other names, such as Vyāṁsa or Vāla: Lahiri 1984. 11 The inaction or immobility as a characteristic of the primeval entities, prior to the Order of the Universe, will last until the most recent cosmogonies of Hinduism, the puranics, see the dream of Viṣṇu between each yuga. 12 Varenne 1982. 9 Cosmogony in Progress 9 RV 3.30.8. The one dwelling together with (his mother) Dānu, the handless vermin did you utterly crush, much invoked Indra. / With your powerful (mace), Indra, you smashed at the sneering footless Vṛtra, who was growing strong. It is possible that the predominant interest for this moment of creation is determined by the will of the priests to extol Indra, the warrior god, chief of the Aryans, whose army he leads to victory in battle. This Primeval Combat is Indra’s moment of crowning glory, and epitomizes the victorious character that the Aryan tribes needed to ensure their progress. Indra’s role in this combat is underlined by his solitude before the monster, a motif, no doubt, inherited from the Indo-European myth, the result of the fear of all the other gods before him.13 Indra himself has to seek the help of other gods: he sends Vāyu to alert him of the moment when Vṛtra falls asleep, but he seeks especially the help of Agni, the fire that is essential for his success. Agni restores Indra’s strength, providing him with food and drink, but Agni is the ritual fire, and the ritual context is very clear since the drink is Soma.14 RV 5.29.7. As a conrade for a comrade, Agni straightaway cooked three hundred buffaloes in accord with his [= Indra’s] will. / Indra drank the pressed soma of Manu, three lakes worth at one blow, for the Vṛtra-smashing. 8. When you, the bounteous, devoured the flesh of three hundred buffaloes and drank three somian lakes, / all the gods called “Carry (the day) !” to Indra as (a gambler) calls “Game !” when he smashed the serpent. The death of the defeated Vṛtra has to be completed. His annihilation is underlined with a frequent motif in the myths of battles against the Evil One par excellence: the profanation of the body and its dismemberment.15 Only then is it possible to prevent the monster’s return to life or the possibility of its rebirth. Indra’s cosmogonic deeds are not finished with this victory. On the contrary, he becomes the god that orders, that puts the cosmogonic elements in their proper place: • He freed the waters and channeled them into rivers. In fact, from the mountain emerge the seven sacred rivers, the seven cosmic rivers, the origin of all rivers, and the rain, Pārjanya. That is, the waters come out in order, subject to the laws of the cosmos, to the ṛtá. 13 Both elements are found in Hesiodus, when he narrates the myth of Typhon (Theogony 820 –868): only Zeus is capable of facing the monster, from whom the other gods fled in fear. 14 This is the sacrificial drink, nourishment of the gods, to whom it bestows immortality. 15 Supra RV 1.32.7. 10 • Julia M. Mendoza He separated heaven and earth, building a pillar skambha, that keeps them apart. RV 7.23.3b. This Indra thrust apart the two world-halves with his greatness, after he smashes the unopposable Obstacles. • When Indra did this, pushing upwards the celestial vault, he consolidated the distinction between both elements, he secured this world’s order, characterized by opposition, by the distinction of opposites, and he organized them in such a way that an intermediate space was left between them, antarikṣam, where the natural elements and all other living beings could be organized. RV 2.12.1. Who, even when just born, was the foremost thinker, the god who by his own will tended to the gods, / before whose explosiveness the world-halves trembled in fear because of the greatness of his manliness — he, o peoples, is Indra. 2. Who made firm the wavering earth, who settled the quaking mountains, / who gave the midspace the proper measure, who propped the heaven — he, o peoples, is Indra. By limiting the space, the directions are organized, measurements and spatial dimensions which divide the world in regions appeared. • Therefore, Indra created the contrast between the upper and the lower world, between the abode of the gods and that of men, and he defined the space of the gods, characterized by the light, against the deep darkness of the exterior, the demonic world, that in the Brāhmaṇas will be the region to which the ásuras16 are confined to. • He constrained the sun and the stars to take their place in the heavens, and he carved the path that the sun must take each day with his axe. • He consolidated the earth, he gave it a foundation, he anchored it, and he held the mountains, making them firm. In consequence, he used his strength so that each element of the cosmos could act according to an order: the waters flow, the earth is still and solid, the heaven is above and the earth is below. • He lit the sacrificial fire, he applied his strength to extract Agni from the stones, the orderly fire, the ritual, subject to the rtá (the Order), and being itself a compendium of it. 16 “Lords, rulers” is, in principle, a neuter epithet, referring to the gods, men and demons, that with time acquired negative connotations, designating negative entities, opposed to the gods, the great primeval demons of great power: Hale 1986. Cosmogony in Progress 11 RV 2.12.3. Who, having smashed the serpent, let flow the seven rivers, who drove away the cattle by uncovering Vāla, / who produced the fire between two stones, gathering the winnings in contests — he, o peoples, is Indra. Even though the interest of the rigvedic seers is focused in Indra’s Combat, this god is not the only one to whom cosmogonic actions are attributed to. We have already seen that, in general, Agni has an auxiliary and determinant role, being at the same time a god made by Indra. The god that represents the Sovereignty over the cosmos, including over the gods, Varuṇa,17 in as much as he is the guardian and guaranteer of Order, also has a relevant role in the cosmogony, so much so that he appears to compete with Indra on the same tasks: RV 7.87.1. Varuṇa dug the paths for the sun. Forward (went) the floods of rivers to the sea, / those mares, like a surge sent surging, following the truth [ṛtá “Order”]. He made great streambeds for the days. 2. Your breath, the wind, roars again and again through airy space, like an ardent animal [= stallion], victorious in his pasture. / (Here are) all your domains, Varuṇa, between these two great and lofty world-halves. RV 4.42.3. I, Varuṇa, am Indra. By my greatness, these two realms, wide and deep, have strong support. / Like Tvaṣṭar, knowing all living beings, I pressed together the two world-halves and upheld them. 4. I swelled the splashing (and mounting) waters; I upheld heaven on the seat of truth [ṛtá “Order”]. / Through the truth the son of Aditi possesses the truth, and he spread wide the threefold earth. Nevertheless, it is clear that Varuṇa’s actions are regulatory, legislative: RV 5.66.2. Because these two [Mitra y Varuṇa] together have achieved lordly dominion that is not overturned, / so then, like the lovely sun, [their dominion] over the sons of Manu has been set in place like their commandments. Varuṇa is the god that loves order and preserves it. He is the god that established the rules of Order because he knew them. The Order, the ṛtá, is implanted in this Universe because of his decree. The Law is Varuna’s decree, will, vratá. Indra acts upon it and uses his strength so that everything is established according to that decree. 17 About the complexity of the character and function of Varuṇa: Lüders 1951; Brereton 1981. 12 Julia M. Mendoza RV 1.25.7. He [Varuṇa] who knows the track of birds flying through the midspace, / knows the (courses of the) boats, since he belongs to the sea. 8. He whose commandments are upheld knows the twelve months and their offspring [= the half-months]; / he knows the one that is born afterward [the thirteenth month]. 9. He knows the trail of the wind — of the broad, towering and lofty (wind); / he knows those [the Maruts] who sit upon. RV 8.41.10a. (Varuṇa) who made the bright (days) and black (nights) becloaked following his commandments, he measured out the primordial domain — RV 8.42.1. He propped up heaven — the lord [Ásura] who possesses all possessions — he measured out the expanse of the earth; / the sovereign king made the living worlds his seat: All these are the commandments of Varuṇa. Varuṇa is the Sovereign of the Cosmos, not a demiurge, and while he is knowledgeable of Order, he is, to a certain point, also outside of it: Order subsists because of his will, and he possesses the māyā, the magic capable of transgressing it. Part of his character, not him, survived in later periods in the figure of Brahmā, the Sovereign. In this view of the Cosmogonic Act as a fight, we have a god who knows and decrees the Laws of Order and another who physically imposes them, defeating the primeval Entities that try to oppose them, assisted by a divinity, Agni, who restores and intensifies his strength, thanks to the power of ritual that Agni represents and epitomizes. Varenne18 has pointed out the difference between the actions of both divinities analyzing the verbs to which both are subject in the cosmogonic contexts: Indra “fights, kills, consolidates, pushes, sets”, while Varuna “knows, decrees, guards, preserves”. 2.2 The Generation of the Cosmos However, an essential element is missing in this cosmogonic version of the oldest hymns: where do the elements of the cosmos that are ordered after Indra’s victory come from ? The issue is that those elements were already there: the waters, the mountain (at least the primeval mountain), the gods, and the ritual —but where do they come from ? 18 Varenne 1982. Cosmogony in Progress 13 Taking into consideration that at this state of the RV there is really no story that would explain these origins, maybe it might be possible to discover the main idea behind the beliefs of the old ṛṣis regarding these issues by exploring the use of a crucial verb when dealing with cosmogonies, jan — “begot, give birth, produce”. Exploring the use of this verb in cosmogonic contexts in which one of the gods is the agent and one of the elements of the cosmos is the recipient of the action. As expected, Indra is the one to whom the creation of some element of the Cosmos is more frequently attributed: generally, the sun and the dawn, usually united into Agni and the heavens. RV 2.12.7. Under whose direction are the horses, under whose the cows, under whose the nomadic bands, and under whose all the chariots, / who has given birth to the sun and who the dawn, who is the guide of the waters — he o peoples, is Indra. RV 3.31.15b. Indra along with the men, as shining one, begot at one blow the sun, the dawn, the way, the fire. Nevertheless, we cannot forget, when interpreting these references, that, in truth, Indra generates (i. e., gives birth) to the sun, the dawn and the light, because he orders them into being. The Dawn and the Sun only exist in the way they are ordered, and follow a path in the heavens, which allows for the counting of the days as they go by. When Indra put them into order, he created them as such, but their primeval form, the element from which they derived, do not come from him. The same can be said about, and more so, of Agni: he is the sacrificial fire, ordered according to ritual, the one that Indra generates as offerent by the first sacrifice. RV 3.34.4. Indra, winning the sun, begetting the days, conquered in the battles along with the fire-priests, as superioriy (itself). / He made shine for Manu the beacon of the days [= sun]; he found the light for lofty joy. Regarding Heaven and Earth, the most frequent expression is that Indra “holds” them, which coincides with the cosmogonic actions derived from the Myth of the Primeval Combat, even though occasionally their birth is also attributed to him. RV 3.32.8. Many are the well-done deeds of Indra. The All Gods do not violate the commandments (of him), / who upholds earth and this heaven. Of wondrous power, he begot the sun and the dawn. RV 1.32.4. When you, Indra, smashed the first-born of the serpents and then beguiled the wiles of the wily ones, / then, giving birth to the sun, the heaven and the dawn, since that time you have surely never found a rival. 14 Julia M. Mendoza RV 2.20.7. Smasher of Vṛtra, splitter of fortresses, Indra razed the Dasa [fortresses] with their dark wombs. / He gave birth to earth and the waters of Manu. In every way he makes the sacrificer’s laud powerful. And in a stanza, Indra is attributed a role in the creation of “all living beings.” RV 8.96.6. [Maruts] “Let us praise him, who begat all these creatures here below him. / We would like to establish an alliance with Indra with our hyms; we would come near the bull with reverencies.” This creative role is associated with Indra alone, as is befitting since it is always produced in the context of the myth of the Primeval Combat that Indra faces alone. Only in one hymn, this role is attributed to another divinity, Viṣṇu. Although the hymn is dedicated to the two deities, the great deeds mentioned are usually ascribed to Indra without any traceable characteristic that would describe Viṣṇu. RV 7.99.4. You two made a wide place for the sacrifice, while you were generating the sun, the dawn, the fire. / The magical wiles even of the Dasa Vrsashipra did not smite in the battle drives, you two superior men. However, there are other gods to whom the creation of the elements of the Cosmos are also assigned to, including those attributed to Indra in the context of the myth of Vāla. In a hymn dedicated to the birth of the Sun, to Mitra, and to Varuṇa, the creation of heaven and earth is attributed to some “good birth-givers” that might refer to the gods in general. RV 7.62.4. O Heaven and Earth, o Aditi, you two should rescue us (and so also should) those good birth-givers [= the gods] who gave birth to you two, o you two on high. / Let us not be in the anger of Varuna or of Vayu, nor in that of Mitra, most dear to men. And as it is natural, the daily birth of the Sun is attributed to the Dawn. Yet that is not necessarily a cosmogonic reference, but a cosmologic one. RV 7.79.3. These very dawns have been seen opposite in the east, extending their light, radiating widely. / They have generated the sun, the sacrifice, the fire. The disagreable darkness has gone back behind. We also find references that allude to the myth of the Pitáras (the seers who were the ancestors and founders of the Vedic families) who found the light hidden in the cave of Vāla and then released it, thus giving birth to the Dawn. Cosmogony in Progress 15 RV 7.76.4. Those were the feasting companions of the gods: the sage poets of old, provided with Truth [rta]. / The Fathers discovered the hidden light. With their mantras that come true, they generated the Dawn. In the hymns dedicated to the most important part of the Soma ritual, the moment when this god, the ritual drink created in the rite, purifies itself when filtered, the Soma Pavamāna “self-purifying Soma”, grouped in book 9, there are constant references to this god’s creative power, one connected to ritual. Soma gives birth to the sun, the light, and also the heavens, even though in other hymns he appears as having been born by the heavens and earth himself. RV 9.110.3. For you have begotten the sun, o self-purifying one, in spreading your milk by your skill, / hastening along with Plenitude, who is lively with cows. RV 9.42.1. Begetting the luminous realms of heaven, begetting the sun in the waters / clothing himself in cows, in the waters —the tawny one. RV 9.98.9. The drop has been born of you two at the sacrifices —o you two world- halves [= jaws of soma press ?], goddesses who yet belong to mankind —/ the mountain-abiding god. Unfailingly, very noisily (I praise ?) him. It is, therefore, very difficult and compromising to find a clear vision of who begot Heaven and Earth in the allusions of the oldest hymns, and whether these are the primeval entities. The poets allude to this birth from different points of view (from the ritual, the myth of Vāla …) and therefore to different aspects of that birth (as Primeval Entities, as the two ordered halves of the world) and they give us different versions of who the protagonist of the whole process was. Moreover, by using the passive tense, they leave us questioning: Heaven and Earth were simply “born”. The attributions given to Soma of a creative power derived from his role in the rites, leaves us with doubt of whether this same power should not have been ascribed to Agni as well, the god representing ritual. Regarding this aspect, we have also found a curious trait: Agni’s active role in the cosmic generation is only attributed to him in the creation of living beings, bhúvanās. As in the case of Indra as the creator of all creatures, the hymn (RV 8.96.6.) uses the expression víśvā jātā́ny. RV 7.5.7. Being born in the highest heaven, at once you protect the fold on every side like Vāyu. / Giving birth to living beings, you cry out, doing service to their descendants, Jātavedas. Without a doubt, this role of generator of life is emphasized in some hymns presenting Agni’s birth in plants as the creator of life force. The lit fire destroys the plants, transforming them into a better and more vigorous life form. 16 Julia M. Mendoza RV 1.140.8. For the long-aired spinsters embrace him; despite having died, they stand erect (to go) forth once again for Ayu [= Agni ?] / Removing their old age, he goes constantly roaring, generating a further living life-force (for them ?), which cannot be laid down. This character of fire as the generator of life is shared with Soma and Pūṣan, and, what is more important, with a divinity of the same field Apā́ṃ Nápāt, “the son of the waters”, who is more than an independent entity in the RV, instead, he is on the path to transform himself into one of Agni’s epithets. RV 2.40.5. The one begat all living things; the other goes along watching over everything. / Soma and Pusan, give help to may insight. With you two would we win all battles. RV 2.35.2. This well-crafted spell we would speak to him from our heart. Surely he will take cognizance of it ? / The Child of the Waters, our compatriot, with the greatness of his lordly power begat all beings. It is quite likely an inherited characteristic, since it coincides with the cosmogonic role attributed to fire in the Iranian religion.19 3 The Speculative Cosmogony of Book 10 In the RV ’s most recent expansion, the hymns of Book 10, we find a real change in the sages’ interest regarding the cosmogonic ritual. The focus is transferred to the Cosmogonic Act, with Indra as the protagonist, regarding the question of the ultimate origin of this creation, of the elements of the Cosmos and of the gods themselves. The figure of Indra began to decline rapidly,20 visible in the fact that his traditional deeds start to be attributed to other gods, or to all the gods in general. RV 10.66.9. They [= all Gods] begot heaven and earth to their commandments, and the waters, the plants and the trees belonging to the sacrifice. / They filed the midspace and the sun to give help. The gods clasped their will to themselves. 19 Fórisz 2003. Rather than a trait of influence of one tradition over another, we consider that this is an inherited trait that was remodeled in each one of the two branches of ritual reform and taken in different directions: the Oriental Iranian branch gives more power to the role of Fire, while the Indian branch, on the the hand, diffuses it in favor of an emphasis of other divinities’ roles from the inherited polytheistic pantheon. 20 Already perceptible in the defensive tone of some of the hymns from the oldest strata, cf. RV 2.12. Cosmogony in Progress 17 RV 10.65.11. Those of good gifts, begetting the sacred formulation, the cow, the horse, the plants, the trees, the earth, the mountains, the waters, / causing the sun to mount in heaven, loosing the Āryas’ commandments upon the earth. This change of authorship is often connected with the consideration of creation in a ritual framework, not only attributing Soma Inda’s creative roleIndra, but also enclosing the action of the gods during a sacrifice, which is the celebrated one, and, at the same time, the first sacrifice, generator of the cosmos. RV 10.88.8. The gods first begot well-spoken speech, after that the fire [/Agni], after that the oblation. / This became their sacrifice, the protector of bodies: That does heaven know, that does Earth, that the waters. This ritual interpretation of the cosmogonic process is one of the directions of the change that we have detected in the cosmogonies of Book 10, which end up taking a clearly monistic formulation to the cosmogonic process. It is not only that the role of all the gods in the ritual of creation is emphasized, but that this creation is seen as the outcome of a First Sacrifice. Hymn 10.90 Puruṣasūtra offers us a version of the ordering of the world by the gods as the result of a ritual of dismemberment.21 The sacred victim Puruṣa, the Man, constitutes a compendium of the Universe that, through the ritual, acquires its orderly form, which, according to the ṛtá, is needed for creation to consolidate itself. From this sacrifice, the songs and verses, the ritual formula, the animals fit for the sacrifice, the four castes that give structure to the human society of the Aryan are born, and the parts of his body result in the elements of the cosmos.22 RV 10.90.13. The moon was born from his mind. From his eye the sun was born. From his mouth Indra and Agni, from his breath Vāyu was born. 14. From his navel was the midspace. From his head the heaven developed. From his two feet the earth, and the directions from his ear. Thus they arranged the world. 21 Lincoln 1986 has proposed an inherited character to the cosmogonic myth of the dismemberment, offering several Indo-European parallels. The Vedic sages would have turn here to an inherited cosmogonic story in order to formulate a version of the origin of the world directly connected to a first sacrifice, to the strength of ritual. 22 The dialogued hymn 10.124 is susceptible to be interpreted also as the reformulation of the combat of Indra in ritual code (Mendoza 2011a). However, this difficult hymn continues to be the object of very different interpretations (Jamison & Brereton 2014, 1597 – 1601). 18 Julia M. Mendoza This tendence towards the ritual interpretation of creation is accompanied by a speculative tendency that implies the emergence, or the potentiation of the mysteric cosmogonic formulations — both paradoxical and abstract. For example, the theme of the cosmogonic entities that give birth to each other emerges: RV 10.90.5a. From him the Virāj was born; from the Virāj the Man. RV 10.72.4. The earth was born from the one whose feet were opened up; from the earth the regions of space were born. / From Aditi, Dakṣa was born, and from Dakṣa, Aditi. 5. Because Aditi was born — she who is your daughter o Dakṣa — / following her the gods were born, the auspicious kin of the immortal one. Or the theme of the hidden name, that links creation with naming the beings. Above all else, we find the first monistic formulations of the Cosmogony, with the proposal of a First embryo, garbhas, made inside the Waters, from which a God emerges who will later be the creator and order the cosmos. Actually, the idea of an embryo born inside the waters is already considered in the oldest strata, and it is linked precisely to Agni’s birth (and therefore Soma’s). Thus the embryo is Agni in 3.1, and Soma in 9.97: RV 3.1.13a. The (fire-churning) Wood — she who brings good fortune — has given birth to the lovely embryo of the waters and of the plants, to him of various colors. / RV 9. 97.41. Soma the buffalo performes this great (deed), that [/when] as embryo of the water he chose the gods. / Purifying himself, he placed strength in Indra. The drop begat the light in the sun. Yet it is in the speculative hymns of Book 10 where we find the monistic proposal of a cosmogonic process explicitly formulated, whose beginnings was the making inside the Primeval Waters of an embryo, who, after growing up, becomes the First Principle creator of all things. This embryo develops inside the Waters, but he is not made by them. The waters “receive” it, as one of the enigmatic hymns to Viśvakarman points out: RV 10.82.5. What is beyond heaven, beyond this earth, beyond lords and gods ? / What first embryo did the waters receive, where all the gods appeared together ? 6. Just this first embryo did the waters receive, where all the gods gathered together: / the one fitted upon the navel of the unborn, that upon which all living beings have taken their places. Cosmogony in Progress 19 Or he is generated within the same water thanks to a tapas energy that in RV and AV only means “heat”,23 without the much later connotations to asceticism, leaving us questioning whether this concept does not substitute a previous idea of Agni as the engine of creation. Tápas appears in a hymn as the ultimate origin of everything: RV 10.190.1. Both Truth and reality were born from heat when it was kindled. / From that night was born, and from that the undulating sea. 2. From the undulating sea was born the year, / which distributes the days and nights and exerts its will over everyone who blinks [= mortals]. 3. The Ordainer arranged, according to their proper order, sun and moon, heaven and earth, midspace and sunlight. Nevertheless, in other hymns, it is the energy that drives the making of a primeval embryo inside the Water, who is presented as a First Principle, That One, neuter and abstract, in one of the RV ’s most commented speculative hymns: RV 10.129.3. Darkness existed hidden by darkness, in the beginning. All this was a signless ocean. / What existed as a thing coming into being, concealed by emptiness — that One was born by the power of heat. Yet in other hymns, this embryo is identified with Prajāpati in 10.121, whose name is revealed in v. 10, but who is also anticipated by the constant introduction of the question headed by ká, which in the Brāhmaṇas is this divinity’s name24: RV 10.121.1. The golden embryo evolved in the beginning. Born the lord of what came to be, he alone existed. / He supports the earth and the heaven here — who [ká] is the god to whom we should do homage with our oblation ? 8. Who by his greatness surveyed the waters receiving (ritual) skill (as an embryo) and giving birth to the sacrifice: / who, the god over gods, alone existed — who is the god to whom we should do homage with our oblation. 9. Let him not do us harm — he who is the progenitor of earth or who, with foundations that are real, engendered heaven, / and who engendered the gleaming lofty waters — who is the god to whom we should do homage with our oblation. 23 Blair 1961. 24 Gonda 1986, 1989. 20 Julia M. Mendoza This embryo, Prajāpati, is the only being, and after being born he stands as the lord of creation, as the creator and organizer of the Cosmos. This monistic version of the Cosmogony, where the beginning is identified with an embryo that does not have a creator, but is born from the waters driven by an energy defined as heat, tapas, and from which a god that is simultaneously Creator, Organizer and First Principle emerges, is what gives rise to the Brāhmaṇic cosmogony, in which tapas has already acquired the connotation of “ascetic exercise”. Yet there is an important difference between this first version and the other from the Brāhmaṇas. The Veda always mentions an embryo, garbhas, while the Brāhmaṇas speak specifically of an egg (āṇḍa), that ceases to be a simple image since its shell is the vehicle where Prajāpati floats before he begins to create, and its parts give rise to the heaven, the earth, air, mountains as is said in the Chandogya Upaniṣad (on Brahmanic cosmology: Klaus 2004).25 This is also the Cosmogonic version that endures as the story from primeval times, and that lies in the different versions of the Purāṇas, which include a cyclical vision of the successive Cosmic Ages or Yugas, and the circular character of Creation: Śivapurāṇa 29.8. After bowing to that Purusa, lord Hiranyagarbha. I shall explain the excelent mode of creation again. 9. Brahmā is the creator; Viṣṇu is the protector and Śiva is the annihilator. Even when the time passes there is no other cause of that creation. 10. Being self-born himself, the lord desirous of creating various subjects created only the waters first. He instilled the virility into them. 12. The egg floating in the water assumed golden color. Brahma, himself famous as the self-born, was created there. 13. After staying there for a year, lord Hiranyagarbha dichotomised that egg and created heaven and earth. From that, a new, complex and abstract version of the cosmogonic process is developed, as well as the cosmological structure of the cosmos in the Puranic texts, that includes — in the primeval times — the generation of two entities, Pradhāna and Puruṣa, identified respectively with brahman (n.) and brahmā (m.). That version’s 25 Luján 2011 points out that this substitution of terms in the Indian texts take place during a time close to the Greek text of Aristophanes Av. 693 – 697, in which, for the first time in Greece, the eggcosmogony appears, and he points out the parallel uses of the parts of the egg in the ChUp with the myth of Phanes (Orph. Fr. 82 Bernabé). For Brahmanic cosmology: Klaus 2004. Cosmogony in Progress 21 interpretation as dualistic is as erroneous as the monistic one: both are different aspects of the primeval universe — one represents the indifferentiated state, the other the differentiated one, which, different from the first, is the same in a manifest cosmos and in the one that has to suffer the process of reabsorption. Bibliography Aufrecht, Th. (1968 [1877]). Die Hymnen des Rigveda. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Bhattarcharji, S. (1970). The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas. Cambridge: CUP. Bernabé, A., & Mendoza, J. (2013). Pythagorean Cosmogony and Vedic Cosmogony (RV 10.129). Analogies and Differences. Phronesis, 58, 32 – 51. Blair, Ch. J. (1961). Heat in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda: a general survey with particular attention to some aspects and problems. New Haven: American Oriental Society (American Oriental Series, 45). Brereton, J. P. (1981). 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