Anoop Verma's Diary: Itihasa & Darshana: Manaku

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Monday, 14 November 2022

The Rig Veda’s Treatment of Polytheism and Monotheism

Hiraṇyagarbha (Cosmic Egg)

Painting by Manaku (1740)

In the Middle Ages, the ideologues and warlords of the Semitic religions branded their own religion as monotheistic and they caricatured all ancient religions as polytheistic. This is the origin of the conflict between polytheism and monotheism—there was no conflict between the two before the rise of the Semitic religious ideology.

In the Rig Veda, which is probably the oldest religious text of Hinduism, instead of conflict, there is conformity and confluence between polytheism and monotheism. The Hiraṇyagarbha Sukta of the Rig Veda (hymn 10.121) begins with an inquiry about God. In Vedic philosophy, Hiraṇyagarbha, first mentioned in the Rig Veda’s Vishvakarma Sukta (verses 10.82.5 and 6), is the golden womb through which the universe was born.

Here’s a translation of the verse 10.121.1:

“IN the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, born Only Lord of all created beings.

He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven. What God shall we adore with our oblation?”

In the question—“What God shall we adore with our oblation?”—the ancient sages are inquiring if they should offer their prayers to the one creator God of the universe, or to the many manifestations of the creator God. They decided that since the one creator God was accessible to the human mind through his many manifestations, the oblations must be offered to many Gods, who were identified as: Indra, Agni, Varuna, Soma, Vishnu, Ashwins, Vayu, Rudra, Mitra, Maruts, Yama, Saraswati, Garutman, Matarisvan, and other Gods.

The verse 1.164.46 of the Rig Veda states that there was one creator God behind the multiplicity of Gods:

“They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutman.

To what is One, sages give many a title they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan.”

The Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda (hymn 10.90) is dedicated to Purusha, the Cosmic Being, who was the creator of everything in the universe. The sages of the Vedic age were drawn to the idea of one creator God. The multiplicity of Gods were the various manifestations of the creator God.

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Nirad C. Chaudhuri

“In the south the temples have survived, and in the north they have not. Over seven centuries from the eleventh to the end of the seventeenth all the great cities of northern India dating from Hindu times were sacked by the Muslim invaders and conquerors of India. All the temples there and in all other centres of Hinduism were systematically destroyed. None were left standing at Ujjain, Ajmere, Delhi, Mathura, Brindaban, Kanauj, Prayag, or Benares—which were the centres of the political, cultural, and religious life of the Hindus. In most of these places mosques were built on the sites of the temples, and in some with pillars taken from them. This religious vandalism also worked its fury on the Buddhist centres. Moreover, it was not simply that the great temples in the cities were destroyed; so were the village temples. For most of the period of Muslim rule, there was a ban on building new temples and rebuilding the old in the regions the Muslims controlled.” ~ Nirad C. Chaudhuri

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"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim." ~ George Santayana

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“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” ~ James Joyce