Vedic Soma (Set of 4 Books)

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Vedic Soma (Set of 4 Books)
Indian Alchemy: Soma in the Veda	Soma (The Delight of Existence)

The Quantum Book Of Soma	Vedic Concept of Soma

The book is an epoch-making work - a paradigm-shift in Vedic studies - which identifies soma as electrum (gold-silver metallic compound). Soma is referred to in the Rgveda as the soul of the yajna (atmayajnasya). The path-breaking identification is based on textual evidence and a penetrating analysis of the Indian alchemical tradition, spanning nearly five millennia.

The author is also the discoverer of the integrating role played by the mighty Sarasvati river adored in the Rgveda as the best of mothers, best of rivers and best of goddesses, Sarasvati and soma are no longer mythology but relevant to present-day children, respectively, as the repository of groundwater sanctuaries in north-west India and the metallurgical tradition starting with the Bronze Age civilization, c. 3000 BC.

Sarasvati and soma are the symbols of the great Indian traditions of devi worship and personification and deification of natural, material phenomena. The tirthas along the rivers are reminders of the critical nature of water management problems all over India and soma as in integral part of the yajna process, is the embodiment of the scientific, technological and materialist temper of ancient India.

Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, is an Indologist and has contributed to the History of Science and Technology in Ancient India (collaborating with Dr. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya), compiled a multi-lingual comparative dictionary for twenty-five Indian languages. He has also designed and maintained the websites.

Focus of the Rgveda
Soma is the very soul of the yajna elaborated in the Rgveda.

The adhvaryu takes the skin (carma or tvac) and puts on it's the filaments or shoots of the soma (amsu). He then takes two boards (adhisavana), puts one on top of the soma shoots, and beats them with the stones (gravana). Then the soma is put between the two boards, and water is poured on them from the vasafivari pot. Soma is then shaken in the hota cup (camasa), wetted again with vasafivari water and put on a stone. Grass is laid on them, and they are beaten so that the juice runs out. The juice is allowed to run into the trough (ahavaniya), then strained through the cloth (pavitra or dasapavitra) which is held by the udgata. The filtered soma is caught in another trough (putabhri). Libations are poured from two kinds of vessels: grahas or saucers, and camasas or cups. [Adapted from Haug's notes from Sayana's commentary on Aitareya Brahmana].

Soma as electrum and soma as a process (jajna).
Soma is meant for the gods; thus, gods in the Rgveda are an allegorical personification of the purifications processes (of soma), just as Soma is an apri deity, together with other materials and apparatus (ladles and vessels) employed in the yajna, accompanied by rcas (or, agnistoma).

If soma is electrum and indra is burning embers (such as charcoal, indha, used in a furnace), the yajna can be interpreted, at the material level, as a process of reduction (or, paritram, purification), using ksara, of a metallic ore compound (maksika or quartr or pyrites) to yield the shining metals: potable (pavamana, rsa-raso varjrah, cf., RV, 9.48.3, i.e., rasa, vigorous as a thunderbolt) after oxidizing the baser metallic elements (in the unrefined pyrite ores) such as lead (naga or ahi or vrtra) and copper (sulba).

Reducing agents include alkaline as well as combustible materials-vegetable and animal products-such as: herbs (ksara), barley-grains and cooked panda, milk, curds, clarified butter, viands (animal fat), bones (used in cupellation processes, and for making crucibles, during the Bronze Age), sheep's hair or wool (reminisced as golden fleece).

For e.g., soma is described as parvatavrdhah in a verse, that the pyrites are from the mountain slopes: 9.46.1. Begotten by the stones the flowing (soma-juices) are effused for the banquet of the gods' active horses. [Begotten by the stones: or, growing on the mountain slopes.]

The exchange value of gold and silver in Vedic times, is elaborated in metaphorical terms related to wealth and lineage: such as food, cattle, rain, and progeny.

The vedi (altar) is the earth and as the agni (fire) raises towards the heaven, the poetic imagination of the rsis (priests) expands into realms of cosmological thoughts, unparalleled in recorded history of early human civilizations. Thus, at a cosmic level, the Rgveda raises profound philosophical questions which have been the fountain-head of Indian philosophical traditions.

In such a perspective, the entire Rgveda can be viewed as an allegory, the human quest for achieving material which has exchange value. In transcending the material level to realms of philosophical explorations, and in expanding the semantic and morphological limits of language to attain new insights into the very concept of "meaning," using language, through metrical, chanted mantras, as a means of understanding the atman and the paramatman, thereby, attaining svarga, or bliss.

All the suktas are thus, governed by a framework of four principal metaphors, rendered in scintillating, ecstatic, spiritual poetic resonance: work, prayer, gods, material well-being. An epitomy of this framework may be seen from the following selections:

Sarasvati river is adored in the Rgveda as: ambitame, naditame, devitame (best of all mothers, best of all rivers, best of all goddesses). She is a mother because she nourished a civilization on her banks. She is a river which had flowed from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea carrying the glacier waters which are today carried y the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers. Over 1200 of the 1600 archaeological sites of the civilization unearthed during the last 70 years have been found on the Sarasvati river basin. For e.g. sites of Ropar, Rakhigarhi, Kunal, Banawali, Kalibangan, Ganweriwala, Kotdiji, Chanhudaro, Dholavira (Kotda), Rojdi, Lothal, Bet Dwaraka where the typical civilization artifacts such as seals with inscriptions, Bronze Age metal weapons and tools, beads, jewellery, weights and measures, water-management systems have been found.

She is a goddess adored ever since all over India as the goddess of arts and crafts, as the goddess of learning. The civilization nourished by the Sarasvati had transformed the chalcolithic (copper and stone) age into the Bronze (copper-tin, copper-arsenic alloys or bronze and brass) Age resulting in a revolutionary way to relate to the material phenomena of the world, using hardened metal tools and weapons. She is a goddess of the Saptasindhu region; her vahana is a peacock or a hamsa. She carries a vina (lute, string-instrument) on her hands. As Mother Goddess, she is also depicted as Durga who is adored with weapons in her multiple hands, as Mahisasura-mardini (the killer of the demon, Mahisa, of the bull form).

The river was desiccated due to a number of geological reasons: Yamuna (called Chambal earlier) cut a deeper channel and captured the tributary of Sarasvati (Tons river) at Paonta Sahib (Himachal Pradesh, a famous Sikh pilgrimage centre). Hence, the cherished memories of the people of Triveni Samgam at Prayag (Allahabad) where Yamuna brought in the waters of the Sarasvati to join the Ganga river. Sutlej (which originated from Mansarovar lake in Mt. Kailas, Tibet) which was a tributary of Sarasvati river, joining the latter at Shatrana (Punjab), took a 90-degree turn at Ropar (due to tectonic disturbances) and migrated away from the Sarasvati and joined the Sindhu (Indus) river. The phenomenon called amdhi (sand-storms) which is common even today, resulted in the build-up of sand-dunes on the bed of the Sarasvati in the areas close to Jaisalmer (Thar or Marusthali desert, also called Cholistan in Pakistan area). Thus Sarasvati river got choked up and lost the perennial waters coming from the Har-ki-dun glacier (Bandarpunch massif, W. Garhwal, Himalayas). When the river got desiccated, many people moved towards the Ganga-Yamuna doab and moved south towards the Godavari river (there is an archaeological site called Daimabad, on Pravara river, a tributary of Godavari, near Nasik).

Sarasvati has been found using scientific techniques: satellite images, carbon-14 dating, tritium analysis of water samples from deep-wells all along the palaeo-channels shown on the satellite images. These have helped in establishing that the river was a mighty one prior to 3000 BC and was desiccated around 1500 BC.

Balarama, elder brother of Krsna goes on a pilgrimage alone the Sarasvati river from Dwaraka to Mathura, after visiting Plaksa-prasravana and Yamunotri (Karapacava). During the pilgrimage, he offers homage to his ancestors. (Even at this time, the river was navigable of a distance of 1600 miles from Paonta Saheb to Lothal/Dwaraka.) The pilgrimage is described in great detail in the Salyaparva of the Mahabharata. So, our epics contain valuable historical, geographical information of ancient Bharata.

The evidence from archaeology has firmly established the continuity and substantially indigenous evolution of the civilization right from c. 3000 BC to today. So, we have to rewrite the history of our ancient civilization.

Bronze Age Civilization and the fire/metal-workers

Rgvedic times are a transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The inscriptions found from hundreds of archaeological sites along the banks of the Sarasvati and Sindhu rivers have been interpreted elsewhere as lists of Bronze Age weapons.

Rgveda is a documentation of the processes of the fire-and metal - workers of the Bronze Age, with particular reference to the most valuable process: soma, the purification of the electrum, gold-silver quartz or pyrite ores, the maksika. It is notable that the term sulba connotes copper (perhaps, pyrite mineral ores); hence, Sulbasutras are metallurgical manuals elaborating the process of transmutation of minerals to yield the transformed, purified metals: gold and silver.

The book was written while the author was collaborating with the late Prof. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya for the latter's History of Science and Technology in Ancient India.

A remarkable development has been the announcement by the author in the Tenth World Sanskrit Conference held in Bangalore in January 1996, that the most expansive civilization of c. 2500 BC was sustained on the banks of the Sarasvati river which was a mighty and perennial river, which emanated from the Bandarpunch massif, W. Garhwal, Himalayas and which had carried the waters currently carried by the rivers Yamuna and Sutlej. Another remarkable development is the announcement in November 1998 through the Sarasvati web that the inscriptions of the civilizations have been deciphered as lists of Bronze Age weapons, using a comparative lexicon of Indian languages.

The discovery of the Sarasvati river is the discovery of the millennium between c. 2500 to 1500 BC, which heralded the Bronze Age civilization in India.

Sarasvati river was indeed hiranyavartani, the carrier of potable, placer gold; there are frequent references in the Rgveda to the vasafivari waters taken from the Sarasvati river, in the processes related to the Soma yajna.

The identification of soma as electrum in this book is consistent with the later-day developments in Indian alchemical tradition and with the discoveries of the Bronze Age artifacts of necklaces made of gold-and silver-discs (niska) found in Kunal and Lothal (c. 3000 BC and 2300 BC respectively)-two archaeological sites on the banks of the Sarasvati river, separated by a distance of over 1200 kms and united by the bonds of cooperative society (samana urve, RV, 7.76.5), sustained and nourished by a mighty, navigable river which facilitated commerce and trade by the people of marutam (=fertile plain, Tamil) or marusthali. The people are the ancestors (pitrs) of the present-day India-the ancestor to whom Balarama offered homage on his pilgrimage along the Sarasvati river.

The argument: Ignis fatuus-alchemy and the "universal' lust for gold

"I am about to give in this little work the history of the greatest folly, and of the greatest wisdom, of which men are capable." These are the opening statements of Lenglet Dufresnoy in his Histoire de La Philosophic Hermetique, 1742. Alchemy is perhaps the fiercest passion (ignis fatuus) which the world of science has ever known.

This work follows in the footsteps of the pioneering work of P.C. Ray, A History of Hindu Chemistry (vol. I, sec. edn., 1903 and vol. II, 1909), which is a unique contribution to the study of chemistry from the earliest times to the middle of the sixteenth century AD. For references to manuscripts, P.C. Ray's work continues to be the prin- cipal sourcebook; in this work, there will be little elaboration of chemical substances, preparations and tonics; the principal objec- tive is to update P.C. Ray's work with some historical information based on researches done since 1909 and to highlight those pieces of evidence which have been ignored in the revision of P.C. Ray's work carried out in 1956.

This is, therefore, a tribute to P.C. Ray; it is apposite to invoke the eloquence of P. Masson-Oursel's review in French, of the origi- nal work by P.C. Ray:

Isis est heureuse de saluer en ect ouvrage non seulement un des rares exernplaires de serieuse etude critique faite par un savant non Euro- pean sur I'historire de la science dans sa proper patrie, independent des distinctions de langue et de race. Decteur es-sciences, profeseur de chimie a Presidency College (Calcutta), depuis de longues annees, l'auteur reunit toutes les conditions pour s'acquitter excellement de sa tache, puisqu 'I joint a la competence scientifique et a une connaissance approfondie de l'histoire ces naturelles affinites si utiles a la compre- hension des doctrines, et qui resultent de la communaute de culture entre Ie chercheur et les theories quit font I'object de la recherche .... The contribution made by P.C. Ray is so grand that the best tribute that the historian and scientist communities can pay to him is to continue the work he has started. He has enriched the disci- pline of history of science with profound insights and perspectives, relating the evolution of sciences to the socio-political context.

The focus is restricted and is on only one component of proto- chemistry or a pseudo-science called alchemy. It should be noted that modern chemistry did not develop from alchemy alone.

Substantial, scholarly work has been done on the alchemical traditions of contemporary civilizations of China, Etypt, Greece, and Islam. In recent years, the Indo-Tibetan alchemical traditions have also been outlined, based on translations of texts from Tibetan. Many Tibetan texts trace their sources to almost all contemporary civilizations, in general, and to India in particular. Tibet may, therefore, like Arabic, prove to be the conservatory of texts of antiquity which are reportedly lost in their places of origin. Since alchemy has progressed across millennia and across civilizations with almost identical objectives not only of aurifiction but also of esoteric alchemy with concepts of elixirs of life and material or spiritual immortality, the alchemical traditions of these civilizations have been used as touch-stones to seek parallels or contrasts with the Indian experience. Quotations from the works related to the alchemical traditions of these civilizations have, therefore, been used liberally to underscore the universal nature of this pseudo- scientific discipline.

The first task attempted was, therefore, to prepare a bibliogra- phy of alchemical literature which may have relevance to the Indian traditions. The bibliography includes references to subjects which have spun-off from or are closely allied to the pseudo-science of alchemy, for example: Ayurveda and Siddha medicine, metallurgy, magic, yoga, and tantrism. Since the pseudo-science focuses on gold-making, a background note on the importance of gold has been included. Only a few of the references have been read and evaluated for the purposes of this essay. The objective of this bibliography is to provide a reference base for further explorations on this complex, inter-disciplinary area of research which will call for multi-lingual expertise, and hence, a team of researchers who are proficient in Tibetan, Arabic and Tamil.

The major limitations of this work is that it does not succeed in isolating (and does not even provide milestones in the chronology or) the Indian tradition from the alchemical traditions of other con- temporary civilizations spanning from C. 2500 BC. At the present state of research, many questions are raised and a few are answered.

The questions are raised in the hope that they may provoke more detailed research work. But, one point is apparent: it would be an impossible task to write alchemical history without writing a social history or evaluating the political economy within which alchemical concepts and practices evolved. The subject of alchemy is shrouded in texts using bizarre techniques of secrecy. The danger of excessive reliance on texts has also to be guarded against since the texts [other than mythologies) generally written by the elite are likely to repre- sent only a fragment (and even, distortion) of reality. In fact, in many cases, the texts shrouded in allegorical and mystical terms are a hin- drance to the delineation of reality. On the contrary, the plebeian traditions encapsulated in popular etyma, icons and in the potsherds unearthed by the archaeologist's spade provide reliable evidence. However, the problem becomes tougher since reality has to be re- constructed based on non-textual material, subject to varying de- grees of reliability and the unresolved problems of dating.

Soma is the name of a deva. The devas are supraphysical beings without bodies and are endowed with consciousness, knowledge & power. A unique feature of Vedic devas is their camaraderie with the humans. They are eager to help human beings in their endeavour towards all-round perfection. Each deva is a storehouse of a particular type of psychological felicity.

Soma is the delight of existence. Delight encompasses everything. He is the master of existence .If we call him earnestly, he will rush to us. The mantras in this book will help us to know the Some deva and interact with him.

The Rig Veda Mantra Samhita has 1024 Suktas assigned to 10 mandalas. Each Sukta has several mantras or poetic metric verses, usually about ten on an average. The total number of mantras in RVS is 10,512. Every mantra is in Vedic Sanskrit. A mantra is not an intellectual composition. It was revealed to a rishi, usually through hearing; the rishi was in a state of deep concentration during the receiving of the revelation. Every mantra is one of several metres such as Gayatri, ushnik, etc. Every Sukta is dedicated either to one deity such as Agni, Soma, etc. or two or more. As mentioned earlier, each Sukta has several mantras and all of them describe the powers of the relevant deity and the prayers by the human devotee to that deity. Agni, Indra are not mere mythological or imaginary beings. Each deity represents a cosmic force with a well-defined function in the operation of Cosmos.

In some of the translations of the Rig Veda Samhita, the deities such as Agni, Indra etc. are represented as physical forces. For instance, Agni is regarded as the fire which burns everything; Soma is a creeper; Indra is the phenomenon by which rain comes out of the rain-bearing clouds etc. However such a summary description ignores all the descriptive epithets to that deity in the many mantras dedicated to that deity, such as 2000 mantras to Agni and 2500 mantras to Indra.

In the Hindu tradition, the Veda mantras in all the four Samhitas are regarded as wisdom. It is very difficult to locate any wisdom in most of the current translations of the Veda mantras.

It was Sri Aurobindo who revealed the hidden secrets in the Rig Veda. According to him, one must group together all the mantras dedicated to one deity, study all the epithets to that deity in them and thus understand the functions of the deity. Many of the epithets of the deities make no sense if we try to understand them in a purely physical manner. However when we expand our horizon and view them from the psychological point i.e., the point of view of mind and prana, the life-energy we clearly understand that every deity has one major psychological function, i.e., a function dealing with the activities of mind and life-energy. For instance, at a purely physical level, Agni is the fire in the hearth or altar; he is also the fire in the stomach which burns the food and digests it. At a psychological level, it is the power of will, the power which impels a person to do an activity. Similarly Indra is cosmic mind controlling all the operations of mind and life-energy. Soma is the joy in the performance of work.

Saksi has produced several small books of less than 100 pages, each book detailing the functions of one deity. The books dealing with Agni, the Divine Will, Sarasvati, the power of Inspiration, Indra, the Divine Mind are already available.

This book dealing with Soma, the Power of Delight in work is a new addition in this series. This book describes the powers of Soma accompanied by a hundred mantras of Rig Veda. For each mantra, we give the text in both the Devanagari and Roman script along with the English translation. To facilitate the reader who is not familiar with Sanskrit, the text of the mantra in both the Devanagari and the Roman script is shifted to the footnote.

Understanding the meaning of a mantra and the aspiration towards the deity helps the relevant cosmic power to manifest in each one of us and guide us from the within. The proper chanting is very helpful; but the meaning of the mantra should be in the mind during the oral chanting. Our earlier readers have complimented us on the inclusion of the Roman transliteration of the text of each mantra. The long Devanagri text with 10 or 15 syllables joined together can be a hindrance to its pronunciation even for a reader familiar with Hindi script. Recall that Hindi language has very little connection to the Sanskrit language or its texts.

Our earlier publications of this nature and size have attracted the attention of wider public. We hope that this book will also be received warmly by all Veda lovers.

The Quantum Book of Soma by Major-General GD Bakshi takes a deeper, expansive approach to Soma that is needed today, in harmony with the ancient Vedic seers and modern great yogis. He adds a detailed scientific dimension to the understanding of Soma relative to the secrets of modern physics and cosmology, as well as modern psychology and medicine, particularly to the workings of brain chemistry and the nervous system. This gives the book a special ability to motivate us and awaken our minds in the high-tech era, endowing the ancient Vedic mantras with a new expression through a futuristic vision of science.

This extensive book of nearly four hundred pages contains a wide spectrum of views and insights on Soma, from new translations of Soma hymns to an extensive explication of the botanical Somas and different plants, to a recognition of the artistic and sensory Somas. He examines the emotional and rasa aspect of Soma, with their connection to poetry and arts.

General Bakshi explores Soma extensively in neurobiology and mind body medicine and depth psychology, and ultimately its connection to the subtle body and chakras, and Agni/Kundalini, weaving modern science with yogic meditation. All these many types of Somas are part of a greater integral and universal view of the infinite and eternal reality, the Atman that is Brahman. His explanation of Soma in terms of Vedantic Mahavakyas like Tat Tvam Asi is most notable. Our inner Self is Soma, and the entire universe is Soma as this explication of Vedanta reveals.

Such new and dynamic studies of the Vedic teachings as General Bakshi has elaborated are essential today, not only to counter old distortions but to open the Consciousness raising potential of Vedic knowledge for everyone in the new planetary era.

May your highest Soma or Ananda flow within you by examining the Soma wisdom of the Vedic Rishis through this in depth and detailed book.

Encountering the Vedic Soma Today Soma is said to be the essence of the Vedas and the veritable nectar of immortality. It is given the highest praise by the Vedic Rishis as the supreme goal of their inner labors to bring down the Divine Light to humanity. This means that any authentic understanding of the Vedas must explain the power of Soma and how to manifest it within and around us. Yet Soma is a subject of much mystery and complexity, so divergent ideas have been proposed as to its identity and meaning. Different views of Soma may reflect some aspect of it, but Soma ultimately transcends all limitations of name and form, time and space as the Supreme Ananda, with many forms in the time-space universe.

To approach Soma at the deeper level of yogic insight, we must recognize the multileveled and multidimensional nature of the Vedic mantras, which address all aspects of the human being, all the realms of nature and lokas of the universe as interrelated and mutually reflective. This is no easy task as it requires a fundamental change of mindset over our common external view of reality. To know the essence of Soma requires a higher intuitive awareness and inspiration beyond the information-based intellect. It cannot be simply measured, quantified or understood as a particular factor in the outer world. Soma pervades the whole of life.

**Contents and Sample Pages**

I have great pleasure in placing before the readers this book, ‘Vedic Concept of Soma’, which is the second book in the series, ‘The logic of Vedic Thought’. I have tried to make it as comprehensive as possible and have summarized the results of my analysis of the subject in Section VI. It is now for the reader to judge to what extent we have moved away from true Vedic tradition in our understanding of the wisdom of our ancients. I would feel more than justified in writing this book, if it attracts more scholars, particularly the scientists to this fascinating field of research. Vedic thought, if interpreted properly, is capable of uniting the entire mankind.

I am grateful to Shri Karpur Chand Kulish, Founder-Editor of Rajasthan Patrika, .Jaipur, for arranging the printing and publication of this book.

No literature in the world is so extensive and so difficult to decipher as, the literature of the Aryans. In spite of the large number of commentaries and investigations undertaken by very talented scholars, our understanding of the wisdom of our ancients is far from satisfactory; In our first book in this series entitled "What is Veda?", we highlighted the deficiencies in the existing studies and have stressed the need for a scientific understanding of the original texts. With this objective in view, we presented in that book, the basic concepts of our sages in the composition of Vedic mantras. We also defined the Vedas as the processes in Nature leading to constructive creation. The actual creation itself is achieved by a process called yajna, which involves not only the three Vedas vk Yajus and Saman directly related to vak, prana and manas, but also the two basic substances-agni and soma. Though we dealt with rk, yajus, saman as well as manas, prana and vak in some detail in the above study, we did not explain what soma is, except that we mentioned that it forms the food to the Sun. We shall therefore attempt in the present book, to present a comprehensive and coherent account of the concept of soma, as formulated by our sages. Soma is an extremely interesting concept from our point of view. Most of the existing research literature has done little to bring out its true functions, as conceived by our sages. We come across statements in literature which are extremely diverse in character regarding the nature and functions of soma. Is it a drink prepared from a plant juice? Or is it the Moon? Or is it pure radiation coming down from interstellar regions? Does it mean waters or food or amrta? Does it constitute the life principle? Is it manas or prana or vak pervading the entire space? And above all, is it the real link between gravitation and electrical phenomenon according to the Vedic seers? Well, we do not need an)' more guesses for causing confusion in the mind of the reader. Yes, soma is really a difficult concept. Yet, if we proceed systematically and study the Vedas, Brahrnanas and Upanjsads with cross references, we can to some extent understand it. Our task is rendered more difficult because of many contradictory statements in the 'literature and we have to proced cautiously and sift the material usefu1 to us from the vast heterogeneous literature, which baffles any scientist.

The Vedic seers believed in a grand unity in the structure and functioning of the universe in adhidaivika, adhyatmika and adhibhautika spheres. The oft quoted saying 'Yathande tatha pinde' has its origin in this belief. Based on this hypothesis, they inferred many things,whether right or wrong, regarding the structure and functioning of the Universe. This is an important point to be remembered throughout our studies. This immediately gives us a clue to understand why soma is being differently described at different places. When soma is described as a drink prepared from the juice of a plant, we have no difficulty in identifying it as adhibhautika soma and, when it is described as moon or radiation coming down from interstellar regions, we can identify it as adhidaivika soma and so on. But soma, as an entity has distinct properities and functions common to all the levels and therefore, it has many interesting ramifications which are of great interest to us.

The Vedic seers discovered, that there are three fundamental. entities in the Universe viz. manas, prana and vak (matter), and these are responsible for every type of creation. With these three entities they worked wonders. According to the Brahman theory of creation, it is the Brahman that is responsible for bringing into existence this Universe with all its diversities and Brahman has to first manifest itself in the form Of Prajapati, or Purusa or Atman or the combined presence and coordinated functioning of manas, prana and vak before creation starts. Actually prior to the coming into existence of the Brahman theory of creation, there were many cosmogonic theories prevalent during the early Rgvedic period. The Nasadiya sukta gives details of these schools of thought and finally upholds the Brahman theory of the origin of the cosmos. Madhusudan Ojha categorised them into ten distinct schools and dealt with them in his works. In the opinion of the author, these works have no parallel in the existing research contributions to the understanding of Vedic philosophic thought.

All the above theories speculate on the nature of the primordeal substance, that gave rise to this Universe. One of them says that, there was 'asat' in the beginning. The Satapatha Brahmana makes a pointed reference to this and says-

'This cosmos was 'asat' in the beginning. What is 'asat'? Rsis were asat in the beginning. Who were those rsis? Pranas were the rsis. They strained themselves desiring creation of the cosmos, hence they are called rsis .