Cosmic Egg and Story of Creation

Hinduism is considered world’s most ancient practicing religion and Hindu Mythology is the pivotal force and the axis on which rests the understanding and following of this great religion. Hindu mythology is a culmination of various stories, to foster the understanding of common people. Our sages and seers tried to explain various concepts of the religion by way of stories.

One of the most interesting concepts of these stories, is the story of creation of Universe. The human mind always wonders where we originate from. It’s an innate instinct – one everyone has. In hindi, the Universe is called the Brahmand. It basically constitutes of two words, Brahma + Anda. Brahma is the primordial being, who was self-created and is proclaimed as the creator of all things. `Anda’ in hindi is egg. So, according to this theory the Universe and all things in it were created by hatching open of this egg. A cosmic egg is one of the most prevalent sacred images which is found all over the world.

Not only in Hindu mythology but in various ancient cultures around the world, the theory of cosmic egg is found. Cave paintings of such eggs have been found in Africa, Ceremonial egg-shaped objects have been found in Sweden, Stone eggs are found in Egypt and Easter island, mysterious sculptures are found in China which show the birth of the dragon through an egg.

Reference to cosmic egg is also found in countries like Greece and Portugal. Dogaon tribe of Mali also credit egg as the creation of all things.

The Rig Veda uses a similar name for the source of the universe: Hiranyagarbha which literally means “golden fetus” or “golden womb”. The Upanishads elaborate that the Hiranyagarbha floated around in emptiness for a while, and then broke into two halves which formed Dyaus (Heaven) and Prithvi (Earth). The Rig Veda has a similar coded description of the division of the universe in its early stages.

Thus, the creation of the Universe can be credited to the cosmic egg that led to the creation of all things.

 Nidhi Saxena