Now, let us look some creation myths from other traditions.
According to the Maori myth, there was Te Kore, ( which stands for Nothing) in the beginning. Just silence. Nothing lasted for a long time. Then there was Te Po, the Long Night , dark and silent which lasted for a long time. There was nothing to see and nothing to hear – just darkness and silence. From the Dark and the Silence emerged Papa Tu Anku or mother earth and Rangi Nui, father sky. They loved each other and embraced each other so close there was no space between them. There were many off-springs but none of them could escape the darkness. They were trapped between Tu Anku and Rangi Nui.
The children decided that they must separate their parents and start living. Tane, a son who was to become god of the forests, placed his feet on this father and slowly pushed him out. The parents were separated. Tane took some earth and made a woman, Hine Ahu One, the earth-formed maiden. She gave birth to Hine Titama, a Dawn maiden. The children of Hine Titama and Tane became the men and women of the world.
The Nordic creation myth also contains elements of void, chaos and many coming from dismembering parts of one body (akin to the story of Prajapati). Initially, there was nothing except a deep dark silent chasm called Ginnungagap between the lands of fire and ice. The heat and the cold of these worlds met at Ginnungagap. When the ice melted drops of water made themselves into a giant called Ymir. The name Yamir means “a screamer”. When Ymir slept, many giants came out of his sweat and his armpits.
As the ice melted, a cow by name Audhumla emerged. She fed on the salt-licks and nourished Ymir with her milk. Her licks uncovered Buri (means Progenitor) who had a son named Bor. Bor had three sons by Bestla, the daughter of a giant named Bolthorn. The first of these sons was Odin who became the chief of the Aesir gods.
Odin and his brothers killed Ymir and fashioned the world from different parts of his body. The ocean came from his blood, the earth and soil from his skin and muscles, plants from his hair, cloud from his brains and the sky from his skulls. Later the gods made a man and a woman from the trunks of two trees, Aska and Embla.
In the southern old kingdom of Egypt, it is said that initially there was nothing but dark water in which eight gods of power lived. They were like frogs and snakes and contained within themselves water, floods, darkness and energy. After a long time, their energy broke through the water and benben, the primal mound, rose out of water. Thoth, the Ibis god flew in with the cosmic egg and laid it on benben, the mound. Atum was born from this cosmic egg and Atum, the sun god contained the life force for all living beings and the potentiality for all non-living matter. He created his spouse from himself and all the gods and human. This myth also resembles the myth of golden egg in the puranas.
There are hundreds of Native American tribes with several different creation stories. However, the themes are common. First, these tribes do not have a word to describe “religion”. There are no dogmas or scriptures either. In other words, there is no organized religion. The emphasis is on the harmony of life between plants, animals and humans on this earth, the sanctity of earth and respect for ancestral spirits. World existed from time immemorial and man came later, after the plants and animals. The plants, animals and birds know more about the earth than we do. We are here to take care of the earth we live in; not to trample upon it and just use it.
In his sensitive firsthand experience, Charles Alexander Eastman (Indian given name was Ohiyesa) writes in his book on The Soul of the Indian as follows: “The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire and Frost were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character. We believed that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature possesses a soul in some degree, though not necessarily a soul conscious of itself. The tree, the waterfall, the grizzly bear, each is an embodied Force, and as such an object of reverence”.
There is a Great Spirit from which everything came; which blew its breath into all living creatures. There are references to sacred hills (Turtle Hill, Black Hill), World Tree (in the Sundance ceremony) and floods akin to these elements in other mythologies.
Two ideas struck me as very similar to the Vedic thoughts. One is from the Lakota tribe who have the word combination Wa-Ka which means That which is That it is. It is literally the same as Thou art That or Tatvam asi. The word Ka also has a meaning similar to Brahman.
The other is the Hopi story about Four worlds before the current one. It sounds very much like the four yugas of the puranas with increasing breaking down of virtues in succeeding worlds.
One other creation story from the Natives of the Plains such as Sioux calls the first human as The Man Who Was The First Created (same idea as Prajapati). He had one younger brother who was killed by a “monster of the deep. In order to revive him, the First Man dug two holes at the banks of Great Water. He filled one with the bones of his brother. In the other he placed four stones and fire and chanted. He then sprinkled water on the heated stones. With the steam, “life appeared”. When the First Man sprinkled water a second time the bones rattled. When he sprinkled water third time there was some sound coming from the hole. When he sprinkled water the fourth time, he heard his brother’s voice saying: “Let me out, brother”. Thus came the first man on this earth from under the ground.
In this myth, the stone is sacred and revered. It is called Tunkan and represents grandfather. Number four stands for the Four Winds, Four Directions and also the foursome of water, wind, fire and other elements.
In the Inuit (Eskimo) tradition, Raven is the Primordial Life. Raven is a trickster or one who behaves against the customs of the society.
The Raven made this world and its waters by beating his wings. He had the powers of a man and a bird and can switch from one to the other by simply dipping his face in the water and taking it out. In the beginning the earth was dark and silent. The Raven made mountains and fields and created peapod plants over the land. On the fifth day, a man came out of one of the peapods. The Raven was surprised that such a creature can come out of the plant he had created. The man was dizzy and confused and drank water from a pool. The Raven was flying above and observing the man. Neither was talking.
The Raven asked the man: “Who are you? Where did you come from?”. The man said that he came out of the peapod. The Raven was surprised. He asked the man whether he has eaten and the man said “no”. The Raven flew away and came back after four days with two raspberries and two heathberries. The man devoured them in one gulp. The Raven realized that the berries were not enough and so he created two sheep out of clay and waved his wings over them. The sheep came alive. The man had more food now.
The Raven created more sheep and let them graze far away so the man not eat them all at once. Soon more men came out of the peapods. The Raven made fish, birds and other animals and placed them away from these men, so they do not kill them all. The Raven also created a huge bear to make sure that men knew fear.
After a few days, The Raven noticed that the man was lonely. Therefore, he went to a place where the man could not see and created a clay figure and waved his wings over it. Out came a beautiful, soft creature. The Raven took her to the man and said: “ This is woman, your helper and companion.” Man was pleased and together they filled the earth with their children.
Conclusion: A review of these creation myths shows that the common questions are: 1. after the first human being came, how did the others come? 2. Even if the first pair of male and female begot children by incest, where did the children get their spouses?
Common themes are: a void and darkness or chaos in the beginning; Water, tree, bird or a snake in the creation story; the word as a powerful force; and many come from one by dismemberment of the first-born or splitting of the first one or by incest.
References:Rg Veda
Satapata Brahmana
Eighteen Puranas
Isabella Price. In the Beginning. Creation Myths Across Cultures. Kindle edition. One Truth Many Paths, 1st Edition 2014
Joseph Campbell. The Mythic Image . Princeton University Press, 1981
Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd Edition. New World Library. 2008
