Creation in the Rig Veda (again)
I recently saw an impressive work of public art by the sculptor Peter Randall-Page, which is pictured above. In the words of the artist -
“‘The One and The Many’, is sculpted from a 24 tonne naturally eroded granite boulder and inscribed with many of the world’s scripts and symbols. From the writings of ancient Babylonia to Mongolian ‘ornamental’ seal script, they recount stories of ‘the creation’: poetic musings and epic tales of our own origins.”
The immensity of the boulder does give an impression of something elementary, mysterious and primordial. It may remind us of the great monuments of neolithic cultures, such as Göbekli Tepe, the Egyptian pyramids, and Stonehenge, which perhaps also in part express a similar basic human aesthetic need and similarly contain symbolic characteristics. Among the different passages inscribed here, most of which I was sadly unable to identify or decipher, I was interested to see the last two lines of the Nāsadīya Sūkta from the Rig Veda, which I previously translated here. Indeed, I have previously discussed Vedic creation myths in several earlier articles.
However, this gave me the idea of translating yet one more creation-related verse, again from the tenth book. Though a different verse, the idea of a vast creation that starts with ‘night’ and basic elements also somehow seems to harmonize with…
