Cosmology of the Rigveda

Cosmological speculations were, in India as elsewhere, the first manifestation of philosophical thought; they are already met with in the Rigveda, in single verses as well as in entire hymns. The basis of these speculations, in the Vedic period, was not a generally adopted theory or mythological conception as to the origin of the world; widely differing idea about this problem seem to have been current, which the more philosophically minded poets developed and combined. There is a kind of progress from crude and unconnected notions to more refined ideas and broader views. A similar variety of opinion prevailed also in the period of the Bràhmanas and UpaniŸads, though there is an apparent tendency towards closer agreement. The world, according to Vedic notions, consists of three parts earth, air, and sky, or heaven. But, when the idea of ‘Universe’ is to be expressed, the phrase most commonly used is ‘heaven and earth.’ Both Heaven and Earth are regarded as gods and as the parents of gods (devaputra), even although they are said to have been generated by gods. Sometimes one god – Indra, or Agni, or Rudra, or Soma – sometimes all the gods together, are said to have generated or created heaven and earth, the whole world; and the act of creating is metaphorically expressed as building, sacrificing, or weaving. That heaven and earth should be parents of the gods, and at the same time have been generated by them, is a downright self-contradiction; but it seems to have only enhanced the mystery of this conception without lessening its value, since it recurs even in advanced speculation. It is avoided in the declaration that mother Aditi is everything, and brings forth everything by and from herself, though in another place it is said that Aditi brought forth Daksa, and Daksa generated Aditi. Here Aditi is apparently a mythological expression for the female principle in creation, and Daksa for the male principle or crea¬tive force. The latter is more directy called Purusa, man or male spirit, and is conceived as the primeved male who is transformed, or who transforms himself, into the world. To him is dedicated the famous purusasukta in Ûigveda, which greatly influenced later theosophical speculation. The object of this book is not so much to present a complete picture of the Cosmology of the Rigveda, as to supply the material from which such picture may be drawn.