Tad Ekam or ("That One")
The so-called Creation Song in the Rg Veda hymn
10.129 uses this epithet to denote the first living entity on the planet.
The four Vedas are the earliest Hindu holy writings, 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 divinities, performed to appease them so that human people might
enjoy the pleasant things of life.
The Creation Hymn has a significantly more speculative tone
than the preceding hymns, which contrasts with their confidence and optimism.
The poet imagines a period before the presence of Being and
Nonbeing in the Creation Hymn, and speculates on how the universe came to be.
Finally, the poet attributes all creation to a single
impersonal entity known only as That One (Tad Ekam).
This song is notable for attributing the creation of the
universe to a single force, a thought that prefigures the concept of Brahman in
the Upanishads, the theoretical books that make up the Vedic literature's last
tier.
The term Tad Ekam, which is technically a neuter noun, also
foreshadows the Upanishads' belief that Brahman is a transcendental power.
After detailing how If One created the universe and
understood all of its mysteries, the poem concludes by speculating that That
One may not be omniscient and omnipotent after all.
In its speculative tone and acknowledgement that the final
solution may be unknown, this hymn foreshadows the Upanishads even further.