Primal Myths
Page 27
And that all her veins were melting.
Then she jerked her knee with quickness,
And her limbs convulsive shaking,
Rolled the eggs into the water,
Down amid the waves of ocean,
And to splinters they were broken,
And to fragments they were shattered.
In the ooze they were not wasted,
Nor the fragments in the water,
But a wondrous change came o’er them,
And the fragments all grew lovely.
From the cracked egg’s lower fragment,
Rose the lofy arch of heaven,
From the yolk, the upper portion,
Now became the sun’s bright lustre;
From the white, the upper portion,
Rose the moon that shines so brightly;
Whatso in the egg was mottled,
Now became the stars in heaven,
Whatso in the egg was blackish,
In the air as cloudlets floated.
—W. F. Kirby (trans.). Kalevala: The Land of the Heroes. Vol. 1. London: J. M. Dent, 1907, pp. 5–7.
FOUR
MYTHS OF INDIA
HINDU MYTHS
Rig-Veda X, xc: The Sacrifice of Primal Man The first of the sacred books of Hinduism, the Rig-Veda (“Royal Knowledge”) is a collection of 1,028 hymns composed by the warring Aryans who came into India from the Iranian highlands c. 2000–1000 B.C. The theology of the early “books” of the Rig-Veda is similar to that found in myths of other Indo-European people to the extent that it is fundamentally polytheistic and nature-oriented. There exists one major difference however: while the polytheism of other Indo-European groups gradually evolved into a kind of modified monotheism with one deity heading the pantheon, Vedism instead raised each deity (frequently credited with the attributes of the others) to a position of supremacy within the context of a given hymn. The individual identities of the gods thus became blurred, and in their place arose the concept of one divine principle expressed in many forms. By the tenth and last book of the Rig-Veda, the names of deities are purely functional.
The four Vedas (the Rig-Veda, hymns to the gods; the Sama-Veda, primarily verses from the Rig-Veda arranged for liturgical purposes; the Yajur-Veda, sacrificial sentences and verses; and the Atharva-Veda, magic spells and incantations) were composed between 2000 and 900 B.C. for use in sacrificial rites, where they were recited by officiating priests.
In this myth from the tenth book, the importance of sacrifice as a creative event is stressed as Parusha (Primal Man) is sacrificed to become the world. Three-quarters of him remains unmanifest and absolute, while the material world, its creatures, and the social classes are all fashioned from the manifest quarter of his immense body.
His mouth becomes the Brahman priest, his arms the prince, his thighs the common people, and his feet the serf. In the end, it is explained that by this grand sacrifice the gods made sacrifice to the principle of sacrifice itself; that is, they made the world holy (sacer, “holy;” facere, “to make”) by creating it out of the process of sacred giving itself. Through the destruction of a body in one form, accomplished in a spirit of offering, the greatest creation of all forms took place. In recognition of this fact and in hopes of imitating the event and thus reestablishing its sacrality, religious rites were born.
ATHOUSAND HEADS had [primal] Man,
A thousand eyes, a thousand feet:
Encompassing the earth on every side,
He exceeded it by ten fingers’ [breath].
[That] Man is this whole universe,—
What was and what is yet to be,
The Lord of immortality
Which he outgrows by eating food.
This is the measure of this greatness,
But greater yet is [primal] Man:
All beings form a quarter of him,
Three-quarters are the immortal in heaven.
With three-quarters Man rose up on high,
A quarter of him came to be again [down] here:
From this he spread in all directions,
Into all that eats and does not eat.
From him was Viraj born,
From Viraj Man again:
Once born,—behind, before,
He reached beyond the earth.
When with Man as their oblation
The gods performed the sacrifice,
Spring was the melted butter,
Summer the fuel, and autumn the oblation.
Him they besprinkled on the sacrificial strew,—
[Primeval] Man, born in the beginning:
With him [their victim], gods, Sadhyas, seers
Performed the sacrifice.
From this sacrifice completely offered
The clotted ghee was gathered up:
From this he fashioned beasts and birds,
Creatures of the woods and creatures of the village.
From this sacrifice completely offered
Were born the Rig- and Sama-Vedas;
From this were born the meters,
From this was the Yajur-Veda born,
From this were horses born, all creatures
That have teeth in either jaw:
From this were cattle born,
From this sprang goats and sheep.
When they divided [primal] Man,
Into how many parts did they divide him?
What was his mouth? What his arms?
What are his thighs called? What are his feet?
The Brahman was his mouth,
The arms were made the Prince,
His thighs the common people,
And from his feet the serf was born.
From his mind the moon was born,
And from his eye the sun,
From his mouth Indra and the fire,
From his breath the wind was born.
From his navel arose the atmosphere,
From his head the sky evolved,
From his feet the earth, and from his ear
The cardinal points of the compass:
So did they fashion forth these worlds.
Seven were his enclosing sticks,
Thrice seven were made his fuel-sticks,
When the gods, performing sacrifice,
Bound Man, [their sacrificial] beast.
With sacrifice the gods
Made sacrifice to sacrifice:
These were the first religious rites,
To the firmament these powers went up
Where dwell the ancient Sadhya gods.
—R. C. Zaehner (trans.). Hindu Scriptures. London: J. M. Dent, 1966, pp. 8–10.
Rig-Veda X, cxxi: Prajapati (The Golden Embryo) In another hymn from the tenth book of the Rig-Veda (c. 1200 B.C.), the unification of divine power in one functionally named deity is clearly evident. Prajapati (the Golden Embryo) is envisioned as the life-force of all the gods.
Prajapati’s origin is somewhat unclear. On the one hand, he is born from the primordial waters that “Moved, conceived the all/as an embryo, giving birth to fire.” As such an embryo of fire, Prajapati bears close relation to the chaotic creator forces in that he forms other things but is not formed himself; and his sacrificial connection is well established by this image. But Prajapati is also his own father in the sense that he “looked upon the waters…with power” and thereby caused them to bring forth the sacrifice that is himself. Once evolved, he created the universe, ordained and sustained the powers of nature and of the gods.
The myth’s ritualistic usage is clear from its repetitive nature and its rhythmic appeal, “What god shall we revere with this oblation?”
IN THE BEGINNING the Golden Embryo [Stirred and] evolved:
Once born he was the one Lord of [every] being;
The heaven and earth did he sustain…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
Giver of life (atman), giver of strength,
Whose behest all [must] obey,
Whose [behests] the go
ds [obey],
Whose shadow is immortality,
Whose [shadow] death…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
Who by his might has ever been the One
King of all that breathes and blinks the eye,
Who rules all creatures that have two feet or four…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
By whose might the snowy peaks,
By whose might, they say, the sea
With Rasa, [the earth-encircling stream],
By whose [might] the cardinal directions
Which are his arms, [exist]…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
By whom strong heaven and earth are held in place,
By whom the sun is given a firm support,
By whom the firmament, by whom the ether (rajas)
Is measured out within the atmosphere…
What god shall we revere with this oblation?
To whom opposing armies, strengthened by his help,
Look up, though trembling in their hearts,
By whom the risen sun sheds forth its light…
What god shall we revere with this oblation?
When the mighty waters moved, conceived the All
As an embryo, giving birth to fire,
Then did he evolve, the One life-force (asu) of the gods…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
Who looked upon the waters, [looked on them] with power,
As they conceived insight, brought forth the sacrifice;
Who, among the gods, was the One God above…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
May he not harm us, father of the earth,
Who generated heaven, for truth is his law,
Who gave birth to the waters—shimmering, strong…
What god shall we revere with the oblation?
Prajapati! None other than thou hath comprehended
All these [creatures] brought to birth.
Whatever desires be ours in offering up
The oblation to thee, may that be ours!
May we be lords of riches!
—R. C. Zaehner (trans.). Hindu Scriptures. London: J. M. Dent, 1966, pp. 10–11.
Rig-Veda X, cxxix: In the Beginning This hymn from the Rig-Veda (c. 1200 B.C.) is one of the most profound and sophisticated of creation myths—profound in its questioning not only of the origin of the world but also of materiality itself, not only of the gods but also of Being-Itself, and sophisticated both in its recognition of the limitations of language and rationality in dealing with this issue and in its tolerance of other possible answers.
The myth asserts that the world did not arise out of being or not-being. Because the two are conceived as polar opposites, they are understood as requiring each other for definition, implying each other for identity. The source that gave rise to either must therefore be prior to both. But language fails here; there are no words for such a condition, and so the Veda inevitably resorts to the negative terminology of “neither this nor that,” refusing to fix and limit what is by definition beyond categorization. Linguistic absurdities serve further to demonstrate the difficulties inherent in this task of explanation beyond its limits: only the irreducible and indefinable One breathed, windless; above was impulse, below was energy. From this configuration of powers, the world and its gods ultimately evolved.
But “Who knows truly? Who can declare it?” This final admission of humility before the unknowable is unique in cosmologies. By making it, the Veda recognizes that conceptual thinking, which is derivative of being, is insufficient to the task of portraying the origin of being. “Who knows whence this emanation hath arisen?” Perhaps God knows, but since God is the first creation, self-evolved, perhaps even he does not know.
WHEN neither Being nor Not-being was
Nor atmosphere, nor firmament, nor what is beyond.
What did it encompass? Where? In whose protection?
What was water, the deep, unfathomable?
Neither death nor immortality was there then,
No sign of night or day.
That One breathed, windless, by its own energy:
Nought else existed then.
In the beginning was darkness swathed in darkness;
All this was but unmanifested water.
Whatever was, the One, coming into being,
Hidden by the Void,
Was generated by the power of heat.
In the beginning this [One] evolved,
Became desire, first seed of mind.
Wise seers, searching within their hearts.
Found the bond of Being in Not-Being.
Their cord was extended athwart:
Was there a below? Was there an above?
Casters of seed there were, and powers;
Beneath was energy, above was impulse.
Who knows truly? Who can here declare it?
Whence it was born, whence is this emanation.
By the emanation of this the gods
Only later [came to be.]
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whence this emanation hath arisen,
Whether [God] disposed it, or whether he did not,—
Only he who is its overseer in highest heaven knows.
[He only knows,] or perhaps he does not know!
—R. C. Zaehner (trans.). Hindu Scriptures. London: J. M. Dent, 1966, pp. 11–12.
Brahmanas: Creation from an Egg The Brahmanas (c. 1000 B.C. and later), prose instructions concerning sacrificial ritual, were composed after the Rig-Veda and appended to it for use by the officiating priests. The Satapatha-Brahmana (the Brahmana of 100 discourses) from which this myth is taken is late enough to have included the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, a philosophical speculation on the meaning of Vedic doctrines.
Here the creator god Prajapati is produced in the form of a golden egg. Rather than the egg being laid upon the primeval waters by a bird or god, as was done in the Finnish and Greek myths, it is produced in this instance by the waters themselves. The creative power of heat is still recognized as an important element, however: in the Kalevala, it was generated by the nesting bird; here it results from the churning of the waters.
Additional parallels to Iranian (and Orphic) myths are also present: Prajapati’s period of gestation is one year and his life span is one thousand years—facts suggestive of time’s connection with being and of the identity of the creator god with time. (If the parallel were carried out, Prajapati could be seen as the equivalent of finite or manifest time; the position of infinite Time in Iranian mythology would here be assumed by the chaotic waters.)
One connection between Indian and Iranian mythology is evidenced here in the reverse. The Asuras or evil ones that Prajapati creates by downward breathing exist as Ahura, the god of Goodness, in Iran; and Iranian devas or evil beings are good divinities when they appear in Indian religion.
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 Prajapati, was produced there from; and hence a woman, a cow, or a mare brings forth within the space of a year; for Prajapati was born in a year. He broke open this 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.
At the end of a year he tried to speak. He said “bhuh”: this (word) became this earth;—“bhuvah”: this became this air;—“svah”: this became yonder sky. Therefore a child tries to speak at the end of a year, for at the end of a year Prajapati tried to speak.
When he was first speaking Prajapati spoke (words) of one syllable and of two syllables; whence a child, when first speaking, sp
eaks (words) of one syllable and of two syllables.
These (three words consist of) five syllables: he made them to be the five seasons, and thus there are these five seasons. At the end of the (first) year, Prajapati rose to stand on these worlds thus produced; whence a child tries to stand up at the end of a year, for at the end of a year Prajapati stood up.
He was born with a life of a thousand years: even as one might see in the distance the opposite shore, so did he behold the opposite shore (the end) of his own life.
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: the gods were created on entering the sky; and this is the godhead of the gods (deva) that they were created on entering the sky (div). Having created them, there was, as it were, daylight for him; and this also is the godhead of the gods that, after creating them, there was, as it were, daylight (diva) for him.
And by the downward breathing he created the Asuras: they were created on entering this earth. Having created them there was, as it were, darkness for him.
He knew, “Verily, I have created evil for myself since, after creating, there has come to be, as it were, darkness for me.” Even then he smote them with evil, and owing to this it was that they were overcome; whence people say, “Not true is that regarding (the fight between) the gods and Asuras which is related partly in the tale and partly in the legend; for it was even then that Prajapati smote them with evil, and it was owing to this that they were overcome.”
Therefore it is with reference to this that the Rishi has said, “Not for a single day hast thou fought, nor hast thou any enemy, O Maghavan: illusion is what they say concerning thy battles; no foe hast thou fought either to-day or aforetime.”
Now what daylight, as it were, there was for him, on creating the gods, of that he made the day; and what darkness, as it were, there was for him, on creating the Asuras, of that he made the night: they are these two, day and night.
Prajapati bethought himself, “Everything (sarva), indeed, I have obtained by stealth (tsar) who have created these deities”: this became the “sarvatsara,” for “sarvatsara,” doubtless, is the same as “samvatsara (year).” And, verily, whosoever thus knows ‘samvatsara’ to be the same as “sarvatsara,” is not overcome by any evil which, by magic art, steals upon him (tsar); and whosoever thus knows “samvatsara” to be the same as “sarvatsara,” overcomes against whomsoever he practises magic art.