The Universe of Ancient India

Origins

The Rig Veda, one of the oldest surviving Indian texts, speculates on the origin of the Universe in the following manner:

1. In the beginning was neither being nor non-being. 

              There was not yet air nor sky beyond it. 

   What enclosed it? Where was it? Who protected it?

            Was water there, unfathomable and deep?

2. There was no death, or immortality then;

            of night or day there was no sign.

   The One breathed without breath with its own energy.

            Other than that, there was nothing else at all.

3 Darkness was there, and everything was surrounded by darkness;

              And everything was formless water, then

  That one, which was hidden by the void, was emerging,

              Stirring, through vigorous power and came to be.

4. In the beginning, love arose,

              Which was the primal germ cell of the mind.

   The seers, searching with wisdom in their hearts,

              Discovered the connection of beings with nonbeing.

5. A slanted line cut being from nonbeing.

              What was designated above it, and what, below?

   Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,

              Thrust from below and moved forward above.

6. Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it?

            Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?

    Even the gods came after its emergence.

            Then who can tell from whence it came to be?

7. That out of which creation has arisen,

            Whether it held it firm or it did not,

   He who surveys it in the highest heaven,

            He surely knows – or maybe He does not!

                                                                      Rig Veda X, 129

In this poem, the poet goes well beyond the natural boundaries of religious exploration of the world. In the final verse, the poet suggests that the origin of the universe is unknowable except perhaps to the ultimate creator who also later created gods, but then, he suspected that the origin was in pure thought and is not sure if even the Original One knows! 

One of the interesting aspects of Hindu mythology is its internal ambiguity. The Universe is created by Bramhan from his own thought. The identity of this Great One is left ambiguous in the later literature while the importance of various gods keeps changing. In the earliest myths, Indra is the most important god as well as a warrior god, but his significance declines in later literature when the Great Trinity of Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva take over. However, various other gods and goddesses continue to occupy their own important roles, and, in fact, Bramha and Vishnu are not worshipped directly. Bramha has very few temples dedicated to him. Vishnu is worshipped in the form of his incarnations such as Rama, Krishna or Narasimha. Shiva is the only member of the Trinity who is worshipped directly. But here too, he is worshipped as an abstract form of linga that is often interpreted as a phallic symbol. Shiva is a lover of art and dance and an intellectual amongst gods. Shiva was originally referred to as Rudra (the angry one or the one who makes you cry). His role as Rudra has an interesting astronomical association.

In the original myth of creation, Prajapati (a name here used in reference to the great Bramhan) developed a desire for his own daughter (often called Ushas or dawn). Interestingly the mother of Ushas is never mentioned. But this incestuous relationship appalled the other gods. They approached Rudra to prohibit this incest. Ushas herself, embarrassed by Prajapati’s attention, kept changing her form, but each time Prajapati, driven by his desire for her, took the equivalent male form. One of the forms that Prajapati took was that of an antelope. The Orion – Taurus constellations are the ones depicting the conflict between Rudra and Prajapati as the former tries prevent the incest. The antelope’s head is the modern constellation Capricorn, and Prajapati is Taurus. Orion the hunter, with his bow and arrow, is Rudra trying to stop Prajapati from committing this sin. 

In variants of this myth, the father’s seed falls on the ground and fertilises the earth, and there are elaborate stories about Rudra’s anger. In other variations, the brightest star in Taurus, Aldeberan (Rohini) is the female deer; Orion is Prajapati; and the three stars that form the belt of Orion in western myths, represent the arrow that pierced Prajapati. The three stars in the belt are named after three other gods who assisted Rudra: Agni (fire), Soma (a celestial drink or Moon), and Vishnu (the supreme god). In this visualisation, Sirius and Aldeberan represent the hunter.

As time has progressed, various seers have added clarifications to these earliest speculations, and explored other ideas about the origin of the universe. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (a 6th Brahmana text dated to the 8th and 7th Centuries BC), Yagnavalkya describes the Universe to Gargi in the following terms:

• Everything on earth is wrapped in water

• Water is wrapped in air

• Air is wrapped in the sky

• The sky is wrapped in the world of the gandharvas (spirits?)

• The world of gandharvas is wrapped in Aditya (Sun)

• The world of the Sun is wrapped in the world of Chandra (Moon) 

• The world of the Moon is wrapped in the world of Nakshatra (stars?)

• The world of Nakshatra is wrapped in the world of Deva.

• The world of Deva is enclosed in the world of Indra. 

• The world of Indra is wrapped in the world of Prajapati. 

• The world of Prajapati is wrapped in the world of Bramhan.

This multilayered universe is a common theme to cosmogony of not only Hinduism but also to Jainism and Buddhism, both of which arose from the same intellectual pool of the 5th century BC. 

Jainism, a religious order contemporaneous with Buddhism, has its own visualization of the Universe that was formalized in the first millennium BC. Jain astronomy consists of two Suns, two Moons and two sets of nakshatras (lunar mansions). They are essential, because Jain cosmogony portrays the Earth as a series of flat concentric rings of land masses separated by concentric rings of oceans. The central region is Jambudvipa (the island of Jambu) with Mount Meru at the center. Mount Meru is the axis along which the celestial sphere (Earth) rotates. An ocean of salt water encircles Jambudvipa. Beyond this lies Dhatuki Dvipa, encircled by the black sea Kalodadhi, and beyond that is Pushkara Dvipa, rimmed by the impassable mountain range of Manusottara Parvata. Bharatavarsha or India occupies the southernmost part of Jambudvipa. The Sun, Moon and the stars are assumed to move in circles parallel to the Earth’s surface with Mount Meru at the center. Jambudvipa is divided into four quarters and four directions, and since the Sun should bring daylight in sequence to the regions south, west, north and east of Meru, the Sun’s diurnal orbit is also divided into four quarters. Since the average length of a day is twelve hours, the same sun, after bringing daylight over Bharatavarsha in the southern quarter, cannot reappear the following morning because it still has to travel three more quarters (36 hours). The conceptualization of two Suns, two Moons and two sets of constellations overcome this problem.