Ancient Indian Cosmology and the Big Bang Theory

Surely, our ancestors who roamed earth thousands of years ago must have wondered about the origin of the universe. How did they believe the universe was formed? Did man create god or did god create man? Were they convinced that they knew the answers or did they leave open the possibility that the truth is hard to know??

The most brilliant early accounting of the origin of the universe that I have ever read is the Nasadiya Sukta from Rig Veda (circa 1500 BCE). This 3,500 year-old hymn describes a process that is not inconsistent with the Big Bang theory. The hymn is even more interesting for the many other questions it raises — whether the “creator” came before or after the creation and whether we can know the answers to these questions about the origin of the universe. Carl Sagan praised this “tradition of skeptical questioning and unselfconscious humility before the great cosmic mysteries.” Sagan’s commentary on this hymn and ancient Indian cosmology is worth watching in its entirety.

And below is the hymn (bolded text is my emphasis):

There was neither non-existence nor existence then;

Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond;

What stirred? Where?

In whose protection?

There was neither death nor immortality then;

No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;

That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;

Other than that there was nothing beyond.

Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;

Without distinctive marks, this all was water;

That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,?

arose at last, born of the power of heat.

…

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?

Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?

Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.

Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whence all creation had its origin,?

the creator, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,?

the creator, who surveys it all from highest heaven,?

he knows - or maybe even he does not know