Creation Hymn
is a song about the creation of the world.
Popular name for a song from the Rg Veda (10.129), one of the Vedas' most odd hymns.
The four Vedas are the earliest Hindu holy scriptures, with the Rg Veda being the oldest in terms of style and substance.
The majority of the hymns in the Rg Veda are invocations to different gods.
These hymns are chanted to summon and propitiate these divinities so that humans may experience life's pleasures.
The Creation Hymn, in stark contrast to the previous hymns' confidence and optimism, adopts a much more speculative tone.
The poet starts the Creation Hymn by envisioning a period before the existence of Being and Nonbeing, and speculating on the world's genesis.
Finally, the poet attributes all creation to a single impersonal entity known only as "That One" (Tad Ekam).
The poem ends, however, with the idea that even That One may not know the mysteries of the universe.
It foreshadows the last layer of Vedic literature, the Upanishads, with its speculative tone and acknowledgment that the ultimate solution may be unknown.
