Hindu Creation Myths
From the Rig-Veda
Thousand-headed Purusha, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed
he, having pervaded the earth on all sides, still extends ten
fingers beyond it.
Purusha alone is all this—whatever has been and whatever is
going to be. Further, he is the lord of immortality and also of
what grows on account of food.
Such is his greatness; greater, indeed, than this is Purusha. All
creatures constitute but one quarter of him, his three-quarters
are the immortal in the heaven.
With his three-quarters did Purusha rise up; one quarter of him
again remains here. With it did he variously spread out on all
sides over what eats and what eats not.
From him was Viraj born, from Viraj evolved Purusha. He,
being born, projected himself behind the earth as also before
it.
When the gods performed the sacrifice with Purusha as the
oblation, then the spring was its clarified butter, the summer
the sacrificial fuel, and the autumn the oblation.
The sacrificial victim, namely, Purusha, born at the very
beginning, they sprinkled with sacred water upon the
sacrificial grass. With him as oblation the gods performed the
sacrifice, and also the Sadhyas [a class of semidivine beings]
and the rishis [ancient seers].
From that wholly offered sacrificial oblation were born the
verses and the sacred chants; from it were born the meters; the
sacrificial formula was born from it.
From it horses were born and also those animals who have
double rows [i.e., upper and lower] of teeth; cows were born
from it, from it were born goats and sheep.
When they divided Purusha, in how many different portions
did they arrange him? What became of his mouth, what of his
two arms? What were his two thighs and his two feet called?
His mouth became the brahman; his two arms were made into
the rajanya; his two thighs the vaishyas; from his two feet the
shudra was born.
The moon was born from the mind, from the eye the sun was
born; from the mouth Indra and Agni, from the breath the
wind was born.
From the navel was the atmosphere created, from the head the
heaven issued forth; from the two feet was born the earth and
the quarters [the cardinal directions] from the ear. Thus did
they fashion the worlds.
Seven were the enclosing sticks in this sacrifice, thrice seven
were the fire-sticks made, when the gods, performing the
sacrifice, bound down Purusha, the sacrificial victim.
With this sacrificial oblation did the gods offer the sacrifice.
These were the first norms [dharma] of sacrifice. These
greatnesses reached to the sky wherein live the ancient
Sadhyas and gods.
Source: The Rig-Veda, 10.90, in Sources of Indian Tradition
by Theodore de Bary (New York: Columbia University Press,
1958), pp. 16-17.
From The Law of Manu
But in the beginning he assigned their several names, actions,
and conditions (created beings), even according to the words
of the Veda.
He, the Lord, also created the class of the gods, who are
endowed with life, and whose nature is action; and the subtile
class of the Sadhyas, and the eternal sacrifice.
But from fire, wind, and the sun he drew forth the threefold
eternal Veda, called Rik, Yaius, and Saman, for the due
performance of the sacrifice.
Time and the divisions of time, the lunar mansions and the
planets, the rivers, the oceans, the mountains, plains, and
uneven ground,
Austerity, speech, pleasure, desire, and anger, this whole
creation he likewise produced, as he desired to call these
beings into existence… .
Whatever he assigned to each at the (first) creation,
noxiousness or harmlessness, gentleness or ferocity, virtue or
sin, truth or falsehood, that clung (afterwards) spontaneously
to it.
As at the change of the seasons each season of its own accord
assumes its distinctive marks, even so corporeal beings
(resume in new births) their (appointed) course of action.
But for the sake of the prosperity of the worlds, he created the
Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Shudra to
proceed from his mouth, his arms, his thighs, and his feet… .
To Brahmans he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda),
sacrificing for their own benefit and for others, giving and
accepting (of alms).
The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow
gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and to abstain
from attaching himself to sensual pleasures… .
The Vaishya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices,
to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and to cultivate
land.
One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Shudra, to
serve meekly even these (other) three castes.
Source: Manu, The Law of Manu, in The Sacred Books of the
East, vol. XXV, ed. F. Max Müller (Oxford, UK: Clarendon
Press, 1886), pp. 12-14, 24.
