Creation Mythology and Enlightenment in Sanskrit Literature

Accounts of creation in Sanskrit literature include a number of hymns in theR & x325;gvedaprincipal among which areR & x325;V 10.72, 10.81-82, 10.90, 10.121, and 10.129. Later accounts appear in theManavadharmasastra, theMahabharata, and pura?as. Scholars generally describe these accounts as various, mutually inconsistent myths, or as superseded stages of philosophical thought. Even recent treatments of Indian cosmogony that praise the poetic subtlety and prowess of their composers consider their work as products of individual poetic imagination. Yet, despite the variety of expression in the various accounts, they appear to convey a consistent model of the origin of the world. Moreover, the model of the absolute and the first stages of creation mirror the descriptions of the development of enlightenment in foundational texts of Vedanta and systematic analyses of Yoga. The descriptions of creation may therefore rather be the result of the special insight of enlightened sages than the results of individual imagination.