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The Nasadiya Sukta (after the incipit "not the non-existent") is the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda
Rigveda

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian subcontinent sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns dedicated to the Rigvedic deities . It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas....
. It is concerned with cosmology
Cosmology

Cosmology is study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity's place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent , study of the Universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion....
 and talks about the origin of the universe
Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them....
. It is an important example for the emergence of Advaita (Non-dualistic) thought in the Vedic period
Vedic period

The Vedic Period is the period during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Indo-Iranians, were being composed. Scholars place the Vedic period in the 2nd millennium BCE and 1st millennium BCE millennia BCE continuing up to the 6th century BCE based on literary evidence....
 of India
Iron Age India

The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent succeeds the Late Harappan culture, also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition....
.

onsists of seven trishtubhs, although pada 7b is defective, being two syllables short,
"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:
"he verily knows; or if he does not know [...]"


hymn has attracted a large body of literature of commentaries both in Indian theology and in Western philology.

It begins by paradoxically stating "not the non-existent existed, nor did the existent exist then" (), paralleled in verse 2 by "then not death existed, nor the immortal" ().






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The Nasadiya Sukta (after the incipit "not the non-existent") is the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda
Rigveda

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian subcontinent sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns dedicated to the Rigvedic deities . It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas....
. It is concerned with cosmology
Cosmology

Cosmology is study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity's place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent , study of the Universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion....
 and talks about the origin of the universe
Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them....
. It is an important example for the emergence of Advaita (Non-dualistic) thought in the Vedic period
Vedic period

The Vedic Period is the period during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Indo-Iranians, were being composed. Scholars place the Vedic period in the 2nd millennium BCE and 1st millennium BCE millennia BCE continuing up to the 6th century BCE based on literary evidence....
 of India
Iron Age India

The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent succeeds the Late Harappan culture, also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition....
.

Metre

It consists of seven trishtubhs, although pada 7b is defective, being two syllables short,
"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:
"he verily knows; or if he does not know [...]"


Interpretations

The hymn has attracted a large body of literature of commentaries both in Indian theology and in Western philology.

It begins by paradoxically stating "not the non-existent existed, nor did the existent exist then" (), paralleled in verse 2 by "then not death existed, nor the immortal" (). But already in verse 2 mention is made that there was "breathing without breath, of its own nature, that one" ). In verse 3, being unfolds, "from great heat (tapas
Tapas (Sanskrit)

Tapasya in Sanskrit means "heat". In Historical Vedic religion and Hinduism, it is used figuratively, denoting spiritual suffering, mortification of the flesh or austerity, and also the spiritual ecstasy of a yogin or tapas? ....
) was born that one" (). Verse 4 mentions desire (kama
Kama

Kama is pleasure, sensual gratification, sexual fulfillment, pleasure of the senses, desire, eros, the aesthetic enjoyment of life in Sanskrit....
) as the primal seed, and the first poet-seers (kavayas
Kavi

Kavi may refer to:*Kavi is a Sanskrit term for thinker, intelligent man, man of understanding, leader; a wise man, sage, seer, prophet; a singer, bard, poet, and is applied to:...
) who "found the bond of being within non-being with their heart's thought".

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
Spho?a

is an important concept in Sanskrit grammarians, relating to the problem of speech production, how the mind orders linguistic units into coherent discourse....
), equating poetic utterance and creation (see sabda).

The hymn is undoubtedly late within the Rigveda, and expresses thought more typical of later (mid 1st millennium BC) Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy

The term Indian philosophy , may refer to any of several traditions of Eastern philosophy that originated in the Indian subcontinent, including Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy....
, and it has been suspected of being intended as a polemic against the Samkhya
Samkhya

Sankhya, also Samkhya, is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible....
 school.

The hymn has been interpreted as one of the earliest accounts of skeptical inquiry and agnosticism
Agnosticism

Agnosticism is the philosophy view that the logical value of certain claims ? particularly metaphysics claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of deity, ghosts, or even ultimate reality ? is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently impossible to prove or disprove....
.

"The One" repeatedly discussed in the Rigveda has been suggested to have originally referred to the axis mundi
Axis mundi

The axis mundi is a ubiquitous symbol that crosses human cultures. The image expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet....
, and "The One who dwells beyond the seven sages
Saptarshi

The Saptarshi are the seven rishis who are extolled at many places in the Vedas and Hindu literature. The Vedic Samhitas never actually enumerate these rishis by name, though later Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas and Upanisads do so....
" (1.164) as the polar star (at the time perhaps Thuban
Thuban

Thuban is a star in the constellation of Draco . A relatively inconspicuous star in the night sky of the Northern Hemisphere, it is historically significant as having been the north pole star in ancient times....
).

RV 10.130

The hymn that immediately follows (10.130) deals with the origin of sacrifice
Yajna

In Hinduism, Yaj?a is a ritual of sacrifice derived from the practice of Historical Vedic religion times. It is performed to please the Deva or to attain certain wishes....
 and similarly refers to a creator figure, "the Man", identified with Prajapati
Prajapati

In Hinduism, Prajapati is a Hindu deity presiding over procreation, and protector of life. He appears as a creator deity or supreme god above the other Rigvedic deities in RV 10.121.10 and in Brahmana literature....
 by Sayana
Sayana

was an important commentator on the Vedas. He flourished under King Bukka I and his successor Harihara II, in the Vijayanagar Empire of South India....


The hymn contemplates the first sacrifice performed by human worshippers who by the act were elevated to rishi
Rishi

A rishi denotes a poet-sage through whom the Vedic hymns flowed, credited also as divine scribes. According to post-Vedic tradition the rishi is a "seer" or "shaman" to whom the Vedas were "originally revealed" through states of higher consciousness....
s, alluding to the mythical first sacrifice performed by the gods described in the Purusha Sukta
Purusha sukta

Purusha sukta/sookta is hymn RV 10.90 of the Rigveda, dedicated to the Purusha, the transcendental "cosmic man". As per one version, the Suktam has 16 verses, 15 in the meter, and the final one in the meter....
 (RV 10.90) Verse 6 (trans. Griffith):
So by this knowledge men were raised to Rsis, when ancient sacrifice sprang up, our Fathers.
With the mind's eye I think that I behold them who first performed this sacrificial worship.


The questions in verse 3, "What were the rule, the order and the model? What were the wooden fender and the butter?" refer back to the questions in 10.129 (5b "what was above it then, and what below it?" etc.)

Further reading

  • Joel P. Brereton, Edifying Puzzlement: 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)


See also

  • Purusha Sukta
    Purusha sukta

    Purusha sukta/sookta is hymn RV 10.90 of the Rigveda, dedicated to the Purusha, the transcendental "cosmic man". As per one version, the Suktam has 16 verses, 15 in the meter, and the final one in the meter....
  • Neti neti
    Neti neti

    In Hinduism, and in particular Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, neti neti is a chant or mantra, meaning "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that" ....
  • Indian logic
    Indian logic

    The development of Indian logic can be said to date back to the anviksiki of Medhatithi Gautama ; the Vyakarana rules of Pa?ini ; the Vaisheshika school's analysis of atomism ; the analysis of inference by Nyaya Sutras , founder of the Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy; and the tetralemma of Nagarjuna ....