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Cosmological speculations were, in India as elsewhere, the first manifestation of philosophical thought: they are already met with in the Rigveda, in single verses as well as in entire hymnbs. The basis of these speculations, in the vedic period, was not a generally adopted theory or mythological conception as to the origin of the world : widely differing idea about this problem seem to have been current, which the more philosophically minded poets developed and combined. There is a kind of progress from crude and unconnected notions to more refcined ideas and broader views. A similar variety of opinion prevailed also in the period of the brahmanas and upanishads, though there is an apparent tendency towards closer agreement. The heaven and earth should be parents of the gods, and at the same time have been genmerated by them, is a downright self-contradition, but it seems to have only enhanced the mystery of this conception without lesseningg its value, since it recus even in advanced speculation. It is avoided in the declaration that mother Aditi is everything, and brings forth everythging by and from herself, though in another place it is said that Aditi brought forth Daksa and Daksa generated Aditi. Here Aditi is apparently a mythological expression for the female principle in ceration. And daksa for the male principle for creative force. The latter is more directly called purusa, man or male spirit, and is conceived as the primeved male who is transformed, or who transforms himself, into the world. The object of this book is not so much to present a complete picture of cosmology of the rigveda as to supply the material from which such picture may be drawn. PP 12+130. Index, bibliography, clothing. ISBN 8177559269
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