Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/147

 :What germ primeval did the waters cherish,
 * Wherein the gods all saw themselves together,
 * Which is beyond the earth, beyond that heaven,
 * Beyond the mighty gods' mysterious dwelling?


 * That germ primeval did the waters cherish,
 * Wherein the gods together all assembled,
 * The One that in the goat's source is established,
 * Within which all the worlds are comprehended.


 * Ye cannot find him who these worlds created:
 * That which comes nearer to you is another.

In a cosmogonic poem (x. 121) of considerable beauty the creator further appears under the name of Hiraṇyagarbha, "germ of gold," a notion doubtless suggested by the rising sun. Here, too, the waters are, in producing Agni, regarded as bearing the germ of all life.


 * The Germ of Gold at first came into being,
 * Produced as the one lord of all existence.
 * The earth he has supported and this heaven:
 * What god shall we with sacrifices worship?


 * Who gives the breath of life and vital power,
 * To whose commands the gods all render homage,
 * Whose shade is death and life immortal:
 * What god shall we with sacrifices worship?


 * What time the mighty waters came containing
 * All germs of life and generating Agni,
 * Then was produced the gods' one vital spirit:
 * What god shall we with sacrifices worship?


 * Who with his mighty power surveyed the waters
 * That intellect and sacrifice engendered,
 * The one god over all the gods exalted:
 * What god shall we with sacrifices worship?