Creation Mythology: India

India probably has more creation stories than any other culture. Some of these come from the Rig Veda; one of the earliest and most important religious texts of ancient India. It is the oldest of four collections of hymns and other sacred texts, which are known as the Vedas. As with many cultures, the information contained within the Rig Veda was first spread orally for hundreds of years before being written down between 1500 and 1000 BC. The following hymn, known as the Nasadiya, doesn’t give an explanation of creation, it merely speculates and questions before concluding that perhaps no one knew of how it all came into existence.

Non-Existent by DKF

Then was not non-existent nor existent:
there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? And what gave shelter?
Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal:
no sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature:
apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness
this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less:
by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning,
Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart’s thought
discovered the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.
Transversely was their severing line extended:
what was above it then, and what below it?
There were begetten, there were mighty forces,
free action here and energy up yonder.
Who verily knows and who can here declare it,
whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world’s production.
Who knows then whence it first came into being?
He, the first origin of this creation,
whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven,
he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.


The Taittiriya Brahmana, dating to between 900 and 700 BC, tells a creation myth where Prajapati is credited for creation.  Prajapati is sometimes interchanged with Brahma.
 

Prajapati/ Brahma

The Tears of Prajapati

Prajapati emerged, but as soon as he was conscious, the Lord of All Creatures wept, for he could see no purpose in his existence. As he cried, his falling tears became the Earth. The tears he wiped away became the air, and those he brushed upwards became the overarching sky. He wanted offspring and settled down to practice religious austerities. He gave birth to demons, then put aside his body, which became night. He created himself anew, made men and women and cast his body aside, which became the moon. He then assumed a new self, creating the seasons from his armpits and the dusk and dawn from his body. Finally he made the gods from his mouth, and when he put aside this next body, it became the day.


Another creation myth, which can be found in the Rig Veda, Prajapati begins the process of creation by bringing Brahma, the creator god, into existence.


The Creation of Brahma

Lotus Flower by DivineLightAngels

Prajapati, Lord of the Universe, meditated, and as he meditated a seed appeared in his navel. A lotus tree sprouted from the seed and as it grew, the tree was bathed in brilliant light. From this lotus and the light around it, Brahma was born. The light spread out through the cosmos and Brahma spread with it and mixed with it, so that Brahma became the essence of all things and the power contained within them. Brahma also became the essence of time – a single day of his life lasts 4,320 million human years. When these millions of years have passed, the cycle of creation will start again and a new age of the cosmos will begin.


Other Indian creation myths tell of how Prajapati or Brahma, depending on the version, emerged from a golden egg to begin creation. The following myth comes from the Satapatha Brahmana.

The Golden Egg

The Golden Egg

In the beginning there was only the primeval sea – the waters. It was the waters who wished to reproduce, and through devotions became heated enough to produce a golden egg that floated about for a time. Then from the egg came Prajapati. It took a year for him to come, and so it takes about that amount of time for a woman or a cow to give birth. After he broke out of the egg, Prajapati rested on its shell for another year or so before he tried to speak. The sound he made – the Word, his sounded breath – became Earth. His next sound became sky. Other sounds became the seasons. After waiting another year Prajapati stood in his shell. He could see even then from the beginning of his life to its end in one thousand years. Prajapati gave himself the power of reproduction. Some say he created the fire god, Agni, out of himself. With his hot breathing up into the sky (div), he created the gods (devas). With his breathing down Prajapati created the Asuras and the darkness of the earth. To avoid the cosmic struggle between light and dark, Prajapatti overcame the Asuras with evil. Now there were, however, day and night.
Prajapati realized that by creating beings he had created time, and we know that Prajapati is, in a sense, time.


Brahma - God of Creation by molee*

A similar myth, or perhaps a reworking of the above myth, comes from the Upanishads, or learning sessions, written between 800 and 400 BC. Here Prajapati becomes the creator god Brahma.


There was only Non-Being in the beginning. Non-Being developed into an egg. After a year the egg broke into two parts, one silver, one gold. The silver part is earth; the gold part is the sky. The various inside parts of the egg are the mountains, rivers, clouds, and so forth. The sun was born from the egg. At his birth, everything rose toward him. The sun is Brahma.
While there are many different myths within Hindu mythology, one of the most well known involves the creator god, Brahma, who here uses both meditative power and his sexuality to create everything in existence.

Prajapati by Aguaplano

Brahma and the Dawn

First of all Brahma contemplated the cosmos, which was nothing but swirling chaos without shape. As Brahma meditated, the cosmos began to take shape; order started to be revealed from chaos. But the creator realized that he still did not know what the universe would be like, and his very ignorance turned into a dark being, which Brahma then threw away in disappointment. This being turned into Night. Some say that as he continued to meditate, Brahma produced a succession of further beings, from the stars to the gods, before he produced a beautiful daughter, the Dawn.
When Brahma saw his beautiful daughter the Dawn, he became sexually aroused. He made advances to her, but she turned herself into a deer. Brahma responded by transforming himself into a stag. According to one version of the story, Brahma’s daughter would still not let him mate with her; he spilled his seed on the ground and this grew into the first man and the first woman. In the other version of the myth, the pair mated again and again, continuously changing their form, so that their children became the first members of every animal species on the planet. When creation was complete, Brahma took up his dwelling on top of Mount Meru, although he is said to be everywhere. He continues to meditate to give strength to the universe.

Another version of this myth states that the universe had always existed as the spirit of the universal man, Purusha.

Purusha by amorphouskat

Purusha come into being when he became self-conscious and declared ‘I am.’ He had the shape of a man and, looking around, felt the sensation of being entirely along. Purusha longed for a partner – his desire brought a wife into existence and from their union the first humans were born. But the union had been incestuous and Purusha’s wife was ashamed. She fled, transforming herself into a succession of animals. But every time she transformed, Purusha assumed the same form and mated with her. The process continued until all the species of animal on earth had been created.

Purusha can be found in another Hindu myth of creation. The following myth, called Purusha shukta or ‘Hymn to the Person’ (Hymn to the Primeval Man) tells of the sacrifice of Purusha and the following creation of the universe.

Purusha shukta: Hymn to the Person

The three quarters that are set down in secret they do not bring
into movement. The fourth quarter of the Holy Utterance is what men
speak.
The Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a
thousand feet. He, encompassing the world on all sides, stood out
ten fingers’ length beyond.
The Purusha alone is all this universe, what has been and what
is to be. He rules likewise over immortality and also what grows
for food.
Such is his greatness, greater indeed than this is Purusha than this.
A quarter of him is all beings, three quarters are the immortal in
heaven.
Being born he projected himself behind the earth as also before
it.

Purusha: The Beast of Sacrifice

When the gods performed the sacrifice with Purusha as the oblation,
the spring was its clarified butter, the summer the sacrificial ritual,
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 gods performed the sacrifice, and also the Sadhyas
and the rishis.
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 that have double
rows of teeth; cows were born from it, from it were born goats and
sheep.
When they divided the Purusha into how many parts did they
arrange him? What did his mouth become? What his two arms?
What were two thighs and his two feet called?
His mouth became Brahman (priest), his two arms the rajenya (ruler),
his two thighs the vaishyas, from his two feet Shudra were
born.
The moon was born from his mind, the sun from his eyes, from his
mouth Indra and Agni, from his breath Vayu (wind) was born.
From his navel rose the atmosphere, from his head the heaven,
from his two feet the earth, from his ear the directions, thus they
fashioned the world.
With Sacrifice the gods sacrificed to sacrifice – these were the first
of the sacred laws.
These might beings reached the sky, where are the eternal spirits
the gods.

The final myth of creation from India that I have for you today is not a creation myth, per se. According to Hindu mythology there are endlessly repeating cycles of creation and destruction. This famous myth describes how one of these creations was missing particular elements and how the gods managed to retrieved these elements in order to continue the cycle.




The Churning of the Ocean of Milk Edwin Binney 3rd Collection

Churning of the Ocean of Milk

Throughout all the cycles of creation, thoughout all the ages of time, the devas and asuras have been enemies. Throughout all the cycles of creation, throughout all the ages of time, those same gods and demons have needed the offerings of amrita, the butter of immortality, to ensure their continues power.
Now it so happened, at the beginning of the second cycle, that the new universe that arose was incomplete, for from it were missing fourteen precious things, among which was the amrita. Anxious that without the sacred butter they would lose their supremacy, the gods conferred as to what they should do. There was only one solution: they would have to churn the great ocean of milk until they brought out of it all the precious things that were missing.
The gods knew, however, that they could not accomplish this task unaided, so they asked the demons to help them in churning the milky ocean, promising a share of the amrita in return. Enticed by this thought, the demons agreed. But a fish is soon caught that nibbles at the first bait, and if the demons had not been so greedy they would have realized that the gods had no intention of sharing anything with them.
And so the great work began. For a churning stick the gods and the demons uprooted Mount Mandara, and wound around it Vasuki, King of the Serpents, to use as a rope to rotate the mountain. Then, with the demons at his head and the gods at his tail, the assembled company began to haul on Vasuki, pulling first one way and then the other, until slowly, with much creaking and groaning, the huge mountain began to revolve.
As the gods and demons pulled harder and harder the mountain began to turn faster and faster. And so great was the heat from its spinning that it set the mountain slopes alight, and the fire would have consumed every plant, every animal, every birth there, had not Indra, Lord of the Rain and the Storm, sent a rainstorm to quench the blaze.

Vedic Creation Myth by Eduardo-Tarasca

And so great was the weight of the mountain that it would have broken through the earth itself, had not Vishnu the Preserver assumed the form of Kurma the turtle and borne on his back the weight of the mountain. And Vishnu was both the turtle beneath the mountain and the god sitting in glory on top.
And so great was the labour of Vasuki King of the Serpents that a torrent of venom began to pour from his jaws that would have killed gods, demons and all living things, had not Shiva the Destroyer drunk the poison and so saved the world. But as Shiva swallowed the poison, a little of it burnt his throat leaving a blue mark, which is why he is called Nilakantha, which means ‘blue throat’.
And at the end of a thousand years of churning, the gods and demons were at last rewarded, for the precious missing things began to appear out of the ocean of milk. First came the great cow Surabhi, wetnurse of everything living, and then other treasures followed – Varuni, Goddess of Wine; Parijata the Tree of Paradise, whose scented flowers perfumed all the world; the Apsuras, Nymphs of Grace and Beauty: Out of the milky sea, too, rose the sun and Soma, God of the Moon and of Amrita. And there also, floating on the creamy waves, seated in a lotus blossom and crowned with flowers, was Lakshmi, radiant Goddess of Fortune and Plenty, and consort to Vishnu.

Dhanvantari holding the amrita

Finally came the treasure that all the gods and demons had been waiting for – the amrita itself, contained in a cup held by the physician god Dhanvantari. As soon as the demons saw him, they lunged at him and would have made away with the amrita, had Vishnu not assumed yet another form, this time that of a voluptuous woman named Mohini. Seduced by her beauty and filled with desire for her, the demons agreed to allow her to share out the amrita. But no sooner had the gods received their portion than Mohini mysteriously vanished, with the faintest echo of a tinkling laugh, leaving the demons empty-handed.
And that is how the gods kept the amrita for themselves, and how they continued to reign supreme over all of creation.

That’s all for today. Next time we will explore the creation mythology of Australia.





Useful ResourcesMany Many Many Gods of Hinduism by Swami Achuthananda
DK Eyewitness Companions: Mythology by Philip Wilkinson & Neil Philip
Ancient India’s Myths and Beliefs by Charles Phillips, Michael Kerrigan & David Gould
Exploring the Life, Myth, and Art of India by Chakravarthu Ram-Prasad
From Bharata to India: Chrysee the Golden by M. K. Agarwal
Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia by David Adams Leeming
Hamlyn History: Myths Retold by Diana Ferguson
The Rig Veda translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith

 

Creatures From the Deep: Mermaids - Part One

Mermaid by Pygar

Mermaid myths and legends are a worldwide phenomenon, with our fascination with these water spirits going back through centuries.  Often described as beautiful enchantresses, mermaids were also depicted as treacherous and destructive, perfectly personifying the ocean they were believed to inhabit.  But how did the mermaid come into being, what is their origin and how have they evolved over the years?  Let us take a look.

Our perception of the mermaid is believed to date back to the ancient Babylonian god of the sea, Oannes and his counterpart Atargatis, with the earliest accounts dating back to around 5,000BC.  In mythology, Oannes is an amphibious deity who taught the gift of wisdom to mankind.  He was pictured as having the form of a fish, with the head of a man beneath his fish head and feet beneath his fish tail.  During the day, Oannes came onto land and taught human's the arts, sciences and writing.  At night he returned to the ocean.  The following is an account from Berossus, a Babylonian priest of the 3rd century BC.

Oannes of the Sea

At first they led a somewhat wretched existence and lived without rule after the manner of beasts. But, in the first year appeared an animal endowed with human reason, named Oannes, who rose from out of the Erythian Sea, at the point where it borders Babylonia. He had the whole body of a fish, but above his fish's head he had another head which was that of a man, and human feet emerged from beneath his fish's tail. He had a human voice, and an image of him is preserved unto this day. He passed the day in the midst of men without taking food; he taught them the use of letters, sciences and arts of all kinds. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften human manners and humanize their laws. From that time nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun set, this being Oannes, retired again into the sea, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes.

Atargatis, known to the Greeks as Derketo, is a goddess of Assyrian mythology.  She is portrayed much in the same way as we picture mermaids today, with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a fish.  She is, by many, considered to be the mother of mermaids and dates back to around 1,000 BC.

Sailor Atargatis by Cionie

According to Assyrian legend, Atargatis fell in love with a human shepherd, who she accidentally kills.  In shame and grief, Atargatis threw herself into a lake, intending to take the form of a fish.  But the water refused to hide her beauty from the world so she was instead transformed, with her lower body becoming that of a fish and her upper body remaining human and retaining her
 beauty.

It is believed that both Oannes and Atargatis were first portrayed as mortals wearing fish cloaks which were, over time, evolved into tails.  Oannes was considered to represent the positive side of the ocean, 'rising from the waves each morning and sinking below the waves each night, like a sun god.'  Atargatis, on the other hand, represented the dark and destructive side of the ocean and was worshipped as a moon goddess.  

The Foam Born Goddess by oneoftheabove

The story of Atargatis became entwined with many other myths and cultures.  Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, or Venus in Roman mythology, can be linked to Atargatis.  While Aphrodite is not portrayed as a mermaid, she is a product of the ocean and her name is believed to derive from the word 'foam', with many interpreting her name as 'risen from the foam'.  Aphrodite began her life as the genitals of Uranus, which were cut off by Cronus and thrown into the sea. 

'And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden.  First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet.  Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam...'
                                               The Theogony of Hesiod

Matsya, avatar of Vishnu

Some tales of merpeople depict them as benevolent and helpful to humanity, as in the account of Oannes.  Ancient Hindu mythology tells us of the coming of the Great Flood, when Vishnu appeared to Manu.  As Manu washed his hands in the river, a fish pleaded with him to save it.  So Manu put the fish into a jar and, as it grew, he found larger vessels to contain the fish until he eventually released the fish into the ocean.  The fish eventually appeared as Vishnu, a man with a fish tail.  He warned Manu of the coming flood, commanding Manu to take everything onto a boat.  When the deluge came, the boat was pulled by a great golden fish.  And so Vishnu, the fish-tailed merman saved the entire human race from extinction.

While mermaids are most often depicted as beautiful and sometimes as benevolent, this is not true for all.  Norse folklore tells of the Margygr.  In the Korungs-Sknaggsja or King's mirror, a 12th century Icelandic or Norse piece of literature, we are given the following descripton:

A monster is seen also near Greenland, which people call the Margygr.  This creature appears like a woman as far down as the waist, with breast and bosom like a woman, long hands, and soft hair; the neck and head in all respects like those of a human being.  The hands seem to people to be long, and the fingers not to be parted, but united by a web like that on the feet of water birds.  From the waist downwards, this monster resembles a fish, with scales, tail and fins.  This prodigy... is believed to show itself especially before heavy storms.  The habit of this creature is to dive frequently and rise again to the surface with fishes in its hands.  When sailors see it playing with the fish, or throwing the towards the ship, they fear that they are doomed to lose several of the crew; but when it eats the fish, or turning from the vessel flings them away from her, then the sailors take it as a good omen that they will not suffer loss in the impending storm.  This monster has a very horrible face, with broad brow and piercing eyes, a wide mouth and double chin.
                                                                          King's mirror translated by Laurence Marcellus Larson

While some mermaids were said to give omens of good and bad, other mermaids could be down right nasty.  The Nix, Nixe or Nixie are German river merpeople which are said to lure sailors and swimmers to their deaths.  The female Nixie is believed to be more common and is alluring and beautiful.  The male Nixen is also believed to be physically beautiful but is said to have green teeth.  Both are believed to wear green hats.   The Nixie is said to take the form of a human woman and, when on land, she would sing and dance.  They were said to be capable of telling the future, although not to help people but to make them trust.  Once the Nixie felt she had a human's trust, she would lure them into deeper water where she drowned them.

Come With Me by raradolly

In this, the Nixie is similar to the modern percepton of the Greek Siren.  Sirens (bewitching ones), born from the drops of blood which hit the ground from the broken horn of Acheloos, or the offspring of the ancient sea god Phorcys depending on your source, are a type of malicious nymph.  In ancient stories they are depicted as half bird and half woman.  Over many years they have evolved into mermaid like beings which sit on the rocks near the shore, luring sailors into shallow waters where their ships would wreck with their beautiful song.  In these later myths, the only way to kill a Siren was to resist their song, causing the Siren to kill herself.

Sirens Of The Seven Seas by Spellsword95

'So far so good,' said she, when I had ended my story, 'and now pay attention to what I am about to tell you - heaven itself, indeed, will recall it to your recollection.  First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them.  If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.  There is a great heap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them.  Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear, but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as you stand upright on the cross-piece half way up the mast, and they must lash the rope's ends to the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening.  If you beg and pray the men unloose you, then they must bind you faster.'
                                                                                     The Odyssey by Homer

Sailors, it seems, had every reason to fear these monsters of the ocean but they were not the only ones to suffer at the hands of a mermaid.  According to one account, a mermaid was responsible for the extinction of an entire Native American tribe.

The River Mermaid by crazy4coral

 According to the legend, the Pascagoula Indians, also known as the Biloxi, 'marched into a raging river at the comman of a mermaid-like sea goddess and drowned.'  Before 1579 the Pascagoula tribe, also known as the Biloxi Indians, lived peacefully along the Pascagoula river.  They loved and respected a river mermaid that dwelt in the river, even building a statue of her within the temple in their village.  Every evening they worshiped the mermaid at the bank of the river and listened to her sweet song, which is said to have made 'brave warriors... weep under its spell.'
   According to F. Randall Floyd, 'the Biloxi Indians did suddenly and inexplicably vanish during the early sixteenth century, only weeks after a white-bearded priest had appeared to them with a crucifix in his hand, demanding that they abandon their superstitious belief in an underwater goddess.'  The priest somehow convinced the tribe that the mermaid wasn't worthy of their worship and that they should convert to Christianity.
   The tribe took their temple down and threw the mermaid statue into the river.  The mermaid became aware of what had happened and rose from the water, calling to her people to join her in the river, in paradise.  The tribe believed they had made a mistake, joined hands and together leaped into the river, with every man, woman, and child drowning.  It is said that the river still sings to this day, with one reporter stating that the river 'emits a low, mournful humming or singing in certain areas.'

That's all for today.  Next time we will learn about accounts of the merpeople from ancient to modern times.

Useful Resources

The Story of Oannes
Classical Mythology by Mark P. O. Morford and Robert J. Lenardon
A Dictionary of Nature Myths by Tamra Andrews
The Mermaid's Tail by Sophia Delaat
Iceland: Its Scenes and Sagas by Sabine Baring-Gould
Mermaids by Lucille Recht Penner
Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology by Theresa Bane
Water Monsters by Gail B. Stewart
Creatures in the Mist: Little People, Wild Men, and Spirit Beings by Gary R. Varner