Nasadiya Sukta

The Nāsadīya Sūkta (after the incipit ná ásat, or "not the non-existent"), also known as the Hymn of
Creation, is the 129th hymn of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda (10:129). It is concerned with cosmology
and the origin of the universe.[1]

Nasadiya Sukta begins with the statement: "Then, there was neither existence, nor non-existence." It
ponders when, why, and through whom the universe came into being in a contemplative tone, and provides
no definite answers. Rather, it concludes that the gods too may not know, as they came after creation, and
that even the surveyor of that which has been created, in the highest heaven may or may not know.[2] To
this extent, the conventional English title Hymn of Creation is perhaps misleading, since the poem does not
itself present a cosmogony or creation myth akin to those found in other religious texts, instead provoking
the listener to question whether one can ever know the origins of the universe.

Interpretations Nasadiya Sukta (Hymn of non-Eternity, origin of

The hymn has attracted a large body of
literature of commentaries both in Indian
darsanas and in Western philology.[4] The
hymn, as Mandala 10 in general, is late within
the Rigveda Samhita, and expresses thought
more typical of later Vedantic philosophy.[5]
Even though untypical of the content of the
Vedic hymns, it is one of the most widely
received portions of the Rigveda. An atheist
interpretation sees the Creation Hymn as one
of the earliest accounts of skeptical inquiry
and agnosticism.[6] Astronomer Carl Sagan
quoted it in discussing India's "tradition of
skeptical questioning and unselfconscious
humility before the great cosmic mysteries."[7]
The text begins by paradoxically stating "not
the non-existent existed, nor did the existent
exist then" (ná ásat āsīt ná u sát āsīt
tadânīm), paralleled in verse 2 by "then not
death existed, nor the immortal" (ná mṛtyúḥ
āsīt amŕtam ná tárhi). But already in verse 2
mention is made that there was "breathing
without breath, of its own nature, that one"
ânīt avātám svadháyā tát ékam). In verse 3,
being unfolds, "from heat (tapas) was born
that one" (tápasaḥ tát mahinâ ajāyata ékam).
Verse 4 mentions desire (kāma) as the primal
universe):
There was neither non-existence nor existence then;
Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is
beyond;
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
There was neither death nor immortality then;
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;
Other than that there was nothing beyond.
Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;
That One by force of heat came into being;
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this
universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether He was
mute;
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;
The Supreme Brahman of the world, all pervasive and
all knowing
He indeed knows, if not, no one knows
seed, and the first poet-seers (kavayas) who —Rigveda 10.129 (Abridged, Tr: Kramer /
"found the bond of being within non-being Christian)[3]
with their heart's thought".

Karel Werner describes the author's source for

the material as one not derived from reasoning, but a "visionary, mystical or Yogic experience put into
words." Werner writes that prior to creation, the Creation Hymn does not describe a state of "nothingness"
but rather "That One (tad ekam)" which is, "Spaceless, timeless, yet in its own way dynamic and the Sole
Force, this Absolute..."[8]

Brereton (1999) argues that the reference to the sages searching for being in their spirit is central, and that
the hymn's gradual procession from non-being to being in fact re-enacts creation within the listener (see
sphoṭa), equating poetic utterance and creation (see śabda).

Metre
Nasadiya Sukta consists of seven trishtubhs, although para 7b is defective, being two syllables short,

yádi vā dadhé yádi vā ná

"if he has created it; or if not [...]"

Brereton (1999) argues that the defect is a conscious device employed by the rishi to express puzzlement at
the possibility that the world may not be created, parallel to the syntactic defect of pada 7d, which ends in a
subordinate clause without a governing clause:

só aṅgá veda yádi vā ná véda

"he verily knows; or maybe he does not know [...]"[9]

Text and translation

Devanagari Transliteration[10] Translation (Basham 1954)[11]

नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो 1. nā́sad āsīn nó sád āsīt 1. Then even non-existence was
व्योमा परो यत् | tadā́nīṃ not there, nor existence,
nā́sīd rájo nó víomā paró There was no air then, nor the
किमावरीवः कु ह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः yát space beyond it.
किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम् ॥ १॥ kím ā́varīvaḥ kúha kásya What covered it? Where was it?
śármann In whose keeping?
ámbhaḥ kím āsīd Was there then cosmic fluid, in
न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि न रात्र्या अह्न gáhanaṃ gabhīrám depths unfathomed?
आसीत्प्रके तः |
2. ná mr̥tyúr āsīd amŕ̥taṃ 2. Then there was neither death
आनीदवातं स्वधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन्न परः ná tárhi nor immortality
किञ्चनास ॥२॥ ná rā́triyā áhna āsīt nor was there then the torch of
praketáḥ night and day.
ā́nīd avātáṃ svadháyā tád The One breathed windlessly
तम आसीत्तमसा गूहळमग्रे प्रके तं सलिलं ékaṃ and self-sustaining.
सर्वाऽइदम् | tásmād dhānyán ná paráḥ There was that One then, and
kíṃ canā́sa there was no other.
तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं
यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम् ॥३॥ 3. táma āsīt támasā 3. At first there was only
gūháḷam ágre darkness wrapped in darkness.
 apraketáṃ saliláṃ sárvam All this was only unillumined
कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि मनसो रेतः प्रथमं ā idám cosmic water.
यदासीत् | tuchyénābhú ápihitaṃ yád That One which came to be,
ā́sīt enclosed in nothing,
सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन्हृदि प्रतीष्या tápasas tán arose at last, born of the power of
कवयो मनीषा ॥४॥ mahinā́jāyataíkam knowledge.

4. kā́mas tád ágre sám 4. In the beginning desire

तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः avartatā́dhi descended on it -
स्विदासीदुपरि स्विदासीत् | mánaso rétaḥ prathamáṃ that was the primal seed, born of
yád ā́sīt the mind.
रेतोधा आसन्महिमान आसन्त्स्वधा sató bándhum ásati nír The sages who have searched
अवस्तात्प्रयतिः परस्तात् ॥५॥ avindan their hearts with wisdom
hr̥dí pratī́ṣyā kaváyo know that which is, is kin to that
manīṣā́ which is not.
को अद्धा वेद क इह प्र वोचत्कु त आजाता
कु त इयं विसृष्टिः | 5. tiraścī́no vítato raśmír 5. And they have stretched their
eṣām cord across the void,
अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यत adháḥ svid āsī́d upári svid and know what was above, and
आबभूव ॥६॥ āsīt what below.
retodhā́ āsan mahimā́na Seminal powers made fertile
āsan mighty forces.
इयं विसृष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा svadhā́ avástāt práyatiḥ Below was strength, and over it
न| parástāt was impulse.

यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्त्सो अङ्ग वेद 6. kó addhā́ veda ká ihá 6. But, after all, who knows, and
यदि वा न वेद ॥७॥ prá vocat who can say
kúta ā́jātā kúta iyáṃ Whence it all came, and how
vísr̥ṣṭiḥ creation happened?
arvā́g devā́ asyá the gods themselves are later
visárjanena than creation,
áthā kó veda yáta so who knows truly whence it
ābabhū́va has arisen?

7. iyáṃ vísr̥ṣṭir yáta 7. Whence all creation had its

ābabhū́va origin,
yádi vā dadhé yádi vā ná the creator, whether he fashioned
yó asyā́dhyakṣaḥ paramé it or whether he did not,
vyoman the creator, who surveys it all
só aṅgá veda yádi vā ná from highest heaven,
véda he knows — or maybe even he
does not know.

See also
Creation myth
Creatio ex nihilo
God in Hinduism
Hindu cosmology
Hiranyagarbha
 Indian logic
List of suktas and stutis
Narayana sukta
Neti neti
Purusha Sukta

Notes
1. Swami Ranganathananda (1991). Human Being in Depth: A Scientific Approach to Religion
(https://books.google.com/books?id=P0vfFZh9BIIC&q=Big+Bang+theory+and+Indian+philo
sophy&pg=PA21). SUNY Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-7914-0679-2.
2. "Nasadiya Suktam - The Hymn of Creation in the Rig Veda" (https://www.speakingtree.in/blo
g/nasadiya-suktam-the-hymn-of-creation-in-the-rig-veda).

3. Original Sanskrit: Rigveda 10.129 (https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१०.१२९)

Wikisource;
Translation 1: Max Muller (1859). A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (https://archive.
org/stream/historyofancient00mluoft#page/564/mode/2up). Williams and Norgate,
London. pp. 559–565.
Translation 2: Kenneth Kramer (1986). World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative
Religions (https://archive.org/details/worldscripturesi0000kram). Paulist Press. p. 21 (http
s://archive.org/details/worldscripturesi0000kram/page/21). ISBN 0-8091-2781-4.
Translation 3: David Christian (2011). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (http
s://archive.org/details/mapstimeintroduc00chri_515). University of California Press.
pp. 17 (https://archive.org/details/mapstimeintroduc00chri_515/page/n45)–18. ISBN 978-
0-520-95067-2.
4. Wendy Doniger says of this hymn (10.129) "This short hymn, though linguistically simple... is
conceptually extremely provocative and has, indeed, provoked hundreds of complex
commentaries among Indian theologians and Western scholars. In many ways, it is meant to
puzzle and challenge, to raise unanswerable questions, to pile up paradoxes." The Rig
Veda. (Penguin Books: 1981) p. 25. ISBN 0-14-044989-2.
5. "Although, no doubt, of high antiquity, the hymn appears to be less of a primary than of a
secondary origin, being in fact a controversial composition levelled especially against the
Sāṃkhya theory." Ravi Prakash Arya and K. L. Joshi. Ṛgveda Saṃhitā: Sanskrit Text,
English Translation, Notes & Index of Verses. (Parimal Publications: Delhi, 2001) ISBN 81-
7110-138-7 (Set of four volumes). Parimal Sanskrit Series No. 45; 2003 reprint: 81-7020-
070-9, Volume 4, p. 519.
6. Patri, Umesh and Prativa Devi. "Progress of Atheism in India: A Historical Perspective (http://
www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990a22.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130
925145643/http://www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990a22.htm) 2013-09-25 at the Wayback
Machine". Atheist Centre 1940-1990 Golden Jubilee. Vijayawada, February 1990. Retrieved
2007-04-02.
7. Carl Sagan, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Part 10 - The Edge of Forever 44:08 (https://www.y
outube.com/watch?v=FHsC5xbz4Kk&t=44m08s)
8. Werner, Karel (1977). "Symbolism in the Vedas and Its Conceptualisation". Numen. 24 (3):
223–240. doi:10.2307/3269600 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3269600). JSTOR 3269600 (htt
ps://www.jstor.org/stable/3269600).
9. Brereton, Joel (1999). "Edifying Puzzlement: Ṛgveda and the Uses of Enigma". Journal of
the American Oriental Society. 10 (129).
10. Karen Thomson and Jonathan Slocum, Rig Veda: a Metrically Restored Text (1994),
utexas.edu (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/RV/index.html).
11. A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India (1954).

Further reading
Joel P. Brereton, Edifying Puzzlement: Ṛgveda 10. 129 and the Uses of Enigma, Journal of
the American Oriental Society (1999)
P. T. Raju, The Development of Indian Thought, Journal of the History of Ideas (1952)
Karel Werner, Symbolism in the Vedas and Its Conceptualisation, Numen (1977)
Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to
the 12th Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA206). Pearson
Education India. pp. 206–. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0.

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