Sūta said:
1. Even as he was meditating, mental progeny was born of him along with those causes and effects arising out of his body. There emerged from the limbs of that intelligent Being Kshetrajñas (individual souls).
2. Then, desirous of procreating the group of four living entities, Devas, Asuras, Pitris, and mankind, he applied himself in the water.1
1. Verses 2-22 describe the creation of four entities of living beings, viz. Asuras, Devas, Pitris and human beings from various parts of god Brahma’s body at different periods, with the predominant gunas of each category. They may be tabulated as follows:
Creation The Source: The transformation Dominant
part of Brahma’s of discarded body Guna
body
1. Asuras Loins and vital breath Night Tamas
2. Devas Shining face Day Predominant Sattva
3. Pitris Sides Evening Pure Sattva
(Juncture of day
and night)
4. Human beings Mind Moon light (but Rajas
dawn)
3. Then as the self-born god Brahmä engaged himself in meditation on creation, exertion appeared on the part of the creator.
4. Then, from his loins, the Asuras were born at the outset. O Brāhmaṇas, the word Asu means ‘the Vital Breath’. Born of that, they were called Asuras.2
2. Vide v. 21 below. As MW 121-a notes, ‘In later SK., Sura ‘a god has been formed from asura like sita is from asita’.
5. He abandoned that body from which Asuras were created; the body so abandoned by him became night immediately as it (the abandoned body) was dominated by Tamas.
6. As it (the abandoned body) was dominated by Tamas, the night consisting of three watches was full of darkness. Hence the progeny of the self-born lord were enveloped by darkness at night.
7. After creating the Asuras, the lord took up another body of unmanifest nature abounding in Sattva. The lord united himself with it. While engaged with it, they say, he felt pleasure.
8. Then Devas were born from his shining face. They were so called because they were born of his refulgent face.
9. The root Div means1 to play’. Devas were so called because they were born of his playful (shining) body.
17. Having seen the subjects, he again cast off his body. The body so abandoned by him immediately became the moon light.
1. Correct etymology-div means both ‘to play’ and ‘to shine’.
10. After creating Devas, the lord took up another body having only the Sättvic attribute.
11. The lord meditated upon those sons considering them like father and created the father-like Manes from his two sides, between the juncture of day and night. Hence Pitris are Devas and their fatherhood2 is due to that.
2. Putratvam would mean “His being a son unto them”.
12. He abandoned the body after creating the Pitris. As soon as he abandoned the body, it became evening.
13. Hence day is for Devas; night is meant for the Asuras; the body (meant for) Pitris, evening which is between the two, is held to be important.
14. Hence Devas, Asuras, all the sages and Manus, engaged in Yogic communion, worship the middle body (i.e. the twilight time) of Brahmā.
15. Then Brahma took up another body again. The Lord created beings with his mind, in that body consisting of Rajas.
16. Then he created mentally sons from his mind which was dominated by Rajas guna. Hence the subjects were born of his mind.
18-19. Hence the people are delighted when the moonlight comes out (and spreads). Thus these bodies abandoned by the lord instantly became night and day, the twilight and the moon-light. The three, viz. the moonlight, twilight as well as the day consist solely of the Sattva guna. The night comprises the nature of Tamas only; hence it has three watches.
20. Hence Devas created from the mouth are possessed of shining traits of the day and full of delight. Since they were born during the day, they are very powerful by day.
21. Since the lord created the Asuras at night from the loins of his body, through vital breath, the night-born Asuras wield unbearable prowess during the night.
22. These alone function as the causes for the creation of Devas, Asuras, Pitris and human beings in the past and future Manvantaras.
23. The moonlight, the night, the day and the twilight, these four shine when illuminated. The word bhā means ‘to spread’ and ‘to shine’.1 So say the wise scholars. The root bha is used in the sense of spreading and shining.
1. Verses 23-24 suggest the derivation of ambhas water from bha.
24. After seeing (creating?) waters, the Lord created Devas, Dänavas, human beings, Pitris and his other divinities.
25. After casting off that body entirely, he created another form mostly constituted of Rajas and Tamas and united himself with it.
26. Feeling hunger and thirst in darkness, he created another body. The hungry creature created by him attempted to take (possess) the waters,
27-28. Some among them declared, “We shall protect these waters”. They are known as Rakshasas in the world. They are wrathful souls and night-walkers. Those among them who delightedly said to one another, “We shall destroy the waters” became, due to that activity, Yakshas and Guhyakas. They were cruel in their actions.
29. The root raksha is considered to have the sense of protection. The root kshi is used in the sense of destroying. 2
2. Verses 27-29 give the Purāņic etymology of Räkshasa’ and Yakşha’.
30-31. On seeing them with displeasure, the hairs of that intelligent one withered. But due to heat and cold, they climbed the Lord. As the Vyālas (Vālas—hairs) which were dropped un from my head crawled up, they became known as Vyālas and as they dropped down (hinatvāt), they (the serpents) are called Ahis.1
1. Some more Puranic derivations: Vyala Vala —’hair’; ahi hi but Apte derives from han to kill ! Hindi-Sk. Kosha p. 134.
32. As they move footlessly (without foot), they are pannagas and they are sarpas as they crawl. Their abode is below in the earth under the sun and the moon.
33. The excessively terrible fiery foetus, born of his anger, entered those beings of poisonous nature-serpents who were born along with them.
34. On seeing the serpents, he became angry and out of anger he created beings of furious nature. They were very fierce goblins whose diet is flesh and who were reddish-brown in colour.
35. They were remembered as Bhūtas as they came into existence.2 They were called Piśhāchas because they ate flesh. Even as he was singing words, the Gandharvas were born.
2. Verses 35-36 derive the words Bhata’, Pishācha’ and ‘Gandharva’from the functions they carry out.
36. The root dhay means ‘to drink’.3 Since they were born from drinking the (musical) words, they are known as Gandharvas.
3. yātrarthe in the text is incorrect. A. reads “pānārthe, so in Bd. P. 1 2. 8.41.
37. When these eight classes of divine beings were created, the lord from his bodily energy created birds out of his own free will.
38. Covering up those chandas (wilful acts) and the birds by his age (?) and seeing them void, he created groups of winged creatures.
39. He created goats from his mouth, birds from his chest, kine from his belly and sides.
40. From his feet he created horses, elephants, Sarabhas, Gavayas, deer, camels, mules and other animals of various kinds.
41-42. Plants or trees, fruits, and roots were born of his hair. After creating the cattle and plants thus, the lord applied himself to sacrifice. It was in the beginning of the Kalpa, in the Tretā age. Cow, goat, man,1 sheep, horse, mule and donkey-they call these rural domestic animals. Now know about the wild animals.
1. It seems to be the social memory of ancient human sacrifices that man is included in the list of ‘domestic animals’.
43. Beasts of prey, cloven-hoofed animals, elephants, monkeys, birds constituting the fifth and the animals, mice-these were created. The seventh (in the series) were reptiles.
44. From his front mouth2 he created the metre Gayatrī, Varuņa3, Trivruta4, Soma, Rathantara5, and the Agnishtoma among the sacrifices.
2. Verses 44-47 state the creation of Vedic literature, Vedic meters and special hymns and sacrifices from the different faces of Brahma.
3. Bd.P. I. 2.8. 50 reads rcham (the Rugveda).
4. Trivrut-Soma-a threefold stoma in which at first, a set of the first three verses-Truchā of RV. IX. 11 are first sung together, then the second and then the third set is sung.
5. The verses to be sung according to Sama-music are RV VII.32. 22-23, abhi tvā Shūra, SV.1. 233 (Vedic Concordance).
45. From his southern mouth he created the sacred hymns of (Yajurveda?), Trişhtubh metre, the fifteenth stoma, the Bruhatsaman, and the Uktha verses.
46. From his western mouth he created the Saman hymns, Jagali metre, the fifteen hymns of praise, Vairūpya Sāman and Atirätra6 rite.
6. Atirātra is a form of Soma-sacrifice.
47. From his northern mouth he created twenty-first (stoma hymn), the Atharvan, the Aptoryāman,7 Anuşhthubh and Virāj metres.
7. Aptoryāma is an amplification of Atirātra sacrifice. According to Tandya Br. XX. 3. 4-5, it is so called as its performance secures whatever one desires.
48. In the beginning of the Kalpa, the lord created lightnings, thunderbolts, clouds, red-coloured rainbows and birds.
49. As the patriarch Brahmă created the progeny, living beings high and low were born of his limbs.
50. After creating the four classes of beings-Devas, Asuras, Pitris, and mankind, he next created the mobile and immobile beings.
51. He created Yakşhas, Pishachas, Gandharvas, groups or families of Apsaras-s, human beings, Kinnaras, Rakshasas, birds, cattle, wild animals and snakes.
52. Whether changing or unchanging, stationary of mobile, these beings created and re-created, adopted those activities which they had in the previous creation.1
1. The inexorable law of Karma is advocated in vv. 52-56, for destiny or daiva is the Karma of a previous birth.
53. Violent or non-violent, soft or cruel, virtuous or evil, true or false all these things are adopted by them as they appeal to them.
54. It is the creator who ordained diversity of forms in the great elements and their allotment to different physical bodies and the objects of different senses.
55. Some say that it is human effort and others say it is the karma, while still others, fatalist Brāhmaṇas, call it the destiny that decides the nature of beings.
56. Human activity and divine dispensation are decided by the nature of fruit. In fact either of the two alone does not suffice. They are inseparable from each other. Neither one is superior to the other. Neither one alone nor the two separately or collectively.
57. Persons of even vision abiding by Sattva say that the attainment of objects is due to their activities.
It is only through the words of the Vedas that the great Lord created the names and forms of living beings and the development of those that are already created.
58. He assigns names to the sages, the visions belonging to Devas and to other things that were brought forth at the end of the night.
59. Just as the indications and forms foreboding the advent of seasons recur at their appropriate times, so also in the Yugas the same creation appears again and again.
60. The beings of such types created by resorting to his mental power (mānasi siddhi) by god Brahmă born of the un manifest, are seen manifestly, at the end of (god Brahmā’s) night.
61-63. Thus the living beings, the mobile and immobile came into being. But the progeny created by him did not multiply. He created some other mind-born sons equal to himself. These are known as Bhrugu, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Angiras, Marichi, Dakşha, Atri and Vasişhtha. They are known in the Puranas as nine Brahmās. These are propounders of the Vedas and are identical with Brahmà himself.
64. Then Brahma, the ancestor of ancients, created Rudra out of his anger, from his own self. (He created) Samkalpa and Dharma (also).
65-66. At the beginning, Brahmā created mental sons who were equal to himself, viz. Sanandana, Sanaka, the learned Sanatana and the eminent Sanatkumāra. They are eternal, independant, unattached to worldly life and hence they do not procreate.
67-68. They have the knowledge of the future. They are devoid of passions and rivalry. When they remained indifferent to the continuity of the world, the supreme lord Brahmă contemplated (angrily). Out of his anger, a person as resplendent as the sun was born. Half of his body was a man and half a woman. He was comparable to the fire in splendour.
69. “Everything has become full of lustre and equal to the sun in splendour. Divide yourself”—saying so he vanished there itself.
70. Thus addressed, the man and the woman became separate; the man divided himself into eleven parts (out of the male half).
71-72. All the (eleven) great souls were addressed by the noble being: “Try energetically and vigilantly for the totality (continuity) of the world desiring the multiplication (increase in the population) of the world, (try) for the establishment, benefit and interest of the entire world.”
73. Thus addressed, they cried and ran about helter-skelter. Since they cried and ran about they are known as Rudras.
74. The three worlds including the mobile and immobile are pervaded by them. Their followers live in all the worlds.
75-77. They are the valorous lords of Gaņas with the strength of ten thousand elephants. The highly fortunate one (the female),1 forming half the body of Shiva, who has been mentioned to you just before, was the woman born of Brahma’s mouth. The right side of her body was fair (white) and the left black. She had been asked by Brahmå to divide herself. O Brāhmaṇas, thus requested, she bifurcated herself into black and white parts. I shall mention her names. Please listen very carefully:
1. Verses 75-85 give a list of epithets of Shakti or the female form called Bhadrakāli in v. 86. These epithets characterise the different forms of the goddess. An element of Shakti cult is found in v. 75-91.
78-79. Svāhā, Svadha, Mahavidyā, Medhā, Lakşhmi, Sarasvati, Aparņā, Ekaparnā, Patalā, Umā, Haimavatī, Şhaşhthi, Kalyāṇī, Khyāti, Prajñā, Mahabhāgā, and Gauri.
80. Know also in brief the universal forms assumed by the noble Lady (forms she assumed in the universe) through the formation of separate bodies:
81. Prakruti, Niyatā, Raudrī, Durgā, Bhadrā, Pramāthini, Kälarātri, Mahämāya, Revati, and Bhūtanayikā.
82. Listen to her names at the end of Dväpara age: Gautami, Kaushiki, Āryā, Chandi, Katyayani, Sati.
83. Kumārī, Yadavi, Devī, Varadā, Krishnapingala, Barhirdhvajā, Shūladhara, Paramabrahmachāriņi.
84. Māhendri, Indrabhagini, Vruşhakanya, Ekavāsasi, Aparājita, Bahubhuja, Pragalbhā, Simhavähini.
85. Ekānasa, Daityahani, Maya, Mahişhamardini, Amoghā, Vindhyanilaya, Vikrāntā, Gananāyikā.
86-88. These are the names of her forms that have been mentioned to you in serial order. Those persons who recite accurately the epithets of goddess Bhadrakāli as enumerated by me, will never have a failure or discomfiture. Whether in the forest, or in the outskirts, whether in the house or in the city; whether in water or on dry land, these names afford protection from tigers, robbers and thieves. One should repeat these names during mental agony and particularly in a place infested by goblins.
89. An amulet with those names should be used for children afflicted by evil planets, goblins or by evil witches, such as Pūtana and others.
90. The great goddess is glorified as Prajña (intellect) and as Sri (glory). Thousands of goddesses have emerged out of these two and pervaded the universe.
91. She created Vyavasāya (industry) and Dharma (duty) bestowing happiness and thought in the beginning of the Kalpa. They were born of unmanifested womb.
92. Ruchi was the mental son of Brahma. He created Dakşha from his vital breath and Marichi from his eyes.
93-94. Bhrugu was born of his chest. He created Angiras from his head and Atri from his ears. From the vital breath Udāna, he created Pulastya; from Vyana, Pulaha; from Samana, Vasishtha and from Apāna, Kratu.
95. He created Bhadra, Nilalohita in the form of conceit. These are the twelve sons of Brahma born of his vital breath.”
96. These are the mental sons of Brahma. Bhrugu and others who were created were not the expounders of the Veda.
97. They were the ancient householders. Dharma was established and propagated) by them. These twelve create progeny along with Rudra.
98. Both Rubhu and Sanatkumara sublimated sexual virility. As they were born very early before the twelve sons), they were the eldest of all.
99. When the first ancient Kalpa was over, both of them withdrew their splendour and occupied the Vairāja region achieving (the good of) the world.
100. Both of them, practising Yogic virtue and concentrating their self in the Alman maintained the dharma and aspiration (kāma) of the people by their great splendour.
101. Sanat continues to have the same form and features as at the time of his birth. So he is called Kumara. Hence his name is mentioned Sanatkumara.
102. Their twelve races are divine and endowed with divine attributes. Performing holy rites and multiplying the race, they are embellished by great sages.
103. Thus ends (the description of) the activity of the self-born lord in creating the worlds. The creation was born of his various organs. The creation beginning with Mahat and ending with Visheshas belongs to Prakruti itself.
104-105. The light of the sun and the moon illuminates the world which is further embellished with planets and stars. It is surrounded by rivers, oceans, mountains, and cities of various shapes and sizes, and happy countryside. In that unmanifest Brahmavana, Brahmă spends the night.
106-108. This eternal tree of Brahma is born of the seed of Avyakta. It grows up through his blessings. Intellect constitutes its branches and the sense-organs its sprout and Dharma and Adharma its flowers, happiness and sorrow its fruits. It is the source of livelihood for living beings and its root is Brahman.
109. The unmanifest which is the cause of creation is eternal and of the nature of Sat and Asat. This is the Anugraha Sarga, the primary creation of Brahmā.
110. The six creations Mukhya etc. are secondary. They exist in all the three times in Brahma who identifies with them.
111. It is known by the learned that the creations function as causes of one another. There are two divine trees growing together, having fine leaves and sprouts and branches. Only one knows the tree of the Ātman and not the other.
112. That incomprehensible Ātman is the cause of creation of all living beings-he whose head the Brāhmaṇas eulogise as heaven; the sky as the umbilicus; the sun and the moon as the eyes; the quarters as the ears; and the earth as his feet.
113. From his mouth the Brāhmaṇas were born; from his arms the Kshatriyas; from his thigh the Vaishyas and from his feet the Shūdras.1
1. An echo of RV X. 90 (Puruşha Sūkta).
114. The great lord is beyond the unmanifest. The cosmic Egg is born of the unmanifest. From the cosmic Egg is born Brahmå who created the universe.