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Mantra · Rig Veda 10.129: seven verses asking what came before being

Nasadiya Suktam

नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत् । किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम् ॥

Also known as Hymn of Creation

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

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What the Nasadiya Suktam is

The Nasadiya Sukta, printed in many Rig Veda editions as the Nasadiya Suktam, is hymn 129 of the tenth mandala, and it takes its name from its first word, na asat, "not non-being". The Vedic index of seers, the Anukramani, assigns it to the rishi Prajapati Parameshthin, and the commentator Sayana names its subject Bhavavrittam, "that which came into being". It is not a prayer to a named deity: its seven verses in trishtubh metre move from negation to inquiry. Verses 1 and 2 strip away being, non-being, space, sky, death, deathlessness and the line between night and day, leaving only "That One" breathing without wind. Verses 3 to 5 describe darkness hidden in darkness, a seed stirred by tapas, desire as the first seed of mind, and a cord stretched between below and above. Verses 6 and 7 turn to the listener and ask who can know.

A Late Rig Veda Hymn That Questions

The Nasadiya Sukta belongs to the tenth and last mandala of the Rig Veda, the book scholars place latest in the collection, generally around 1200 to 1000 BCE. It has no narrative of a god shaping the world from a body or an egg. Instead its seer works by subtraction, and then by the image of poets searching inside their own hearts, who find "the bond of being in non-being". The hymn did not stay inside one school. The Taittiriya Brahmana of the Black Yajur Veda carries its own version, and Sayana wrote his commentary on that version; the two recensions differ in small readings, such as tamasah against the Rig Veda's tapasah in the last quarter of verse 3. In the closing line, the second half of verse 7 runs two syllables short of the metre, and the scholar Joel Brereton read that gap as deliberate, the verse itself faltering at the point where it admits that the overseer in the highest heaven may not know. Max Mueller translated it in 1859, A. L. Basham gave an English version in 1954, and Carl Sagan quoted it in Cosmos in 1980 as an example of humility before the origin of the universe.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiनासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत् । किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम् ॥

Tamilநாஸதாஸீந்நோ ஸதாஸீத்ததாநீம் நாஸீத்ரஜோ நோ வ்யோமா பரோ யத் । கிமாவரீவஃ குஹ கஸ்ய ஶர்மந்நம்பஃ கிமாஸீத்கஹநம் கபீரம் ॥

Teluguనాసదాసీన్నో సదాసీత్తదానీం నాసీద్రజో నో వ్యోమా పరో యత్ । కిమావరీవః కుహ కస్య శర్మన్నమ్భః కిమాసీద్గహనం గభీరమ్ ॥

Kannadaನಾಸದಾಸೀನ್ನೋ ಸದಾಸೀತ್ತದಾನೀಂ ನಾಸೀದ್ರಜೋ ನೋ ವ್ಯೋಮಾ ಪರೋ ಯತ್ । ಕಿಮಾವರೀವಃ ಕುಹ ಕಸ್ಯ ಶರ್ಮನ್ನಮ್ಭಃ ಕಿಮಾಸೀದ್ಗಹನಂ ಗಭೀರಮ್ ॥

Malayalamനാസദാസീന്നോ സദാസീത്തദാനീം നാസീദ്രജോ നോ വ്യോമാ പരോ യത് । കിമാവരീവഃ കുഹ കസ്യ ശര്മന്നമ്ഭഃ കിമാസീദ്ഗഹനം ഗഭീരമ് ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationnāsadāsīnno sadāsīttadānīṃ nāsīdrajo no vyomā paro yat | kimāvarīvaḥ kuha kasya śarmannambhaḥ kimāsīdgahanaṃ gabhīram ||

“At that time there was neither non-being nor being; there was no realm of space and no sky beyond it. What stirred, and where, and under whose shelter? Was there water, deep and unfathomable?”

नासदासीन्नो: nāsadāsīnno — non-being was not, nor
सदासीत्तदानीं: sadāsīttadānīṃ — was being, at that time
नासीद्रजो: nāsīdrajo — there was no realm of space
नो: no — nor
व्योमा: vyomā — the sky
परो: paro — beyond
यत्: yat — which (is)
किमावरीवः: kimāvarīvaḥ — what stirred, covering
कुह: kuha — where
कस्य: kasya — of whom
शर्मन्नम्भः: śarmannambhaḥ — in the shelter; water
किमासीद्गहनं: kimāsīdgahanaṃ — was there, deep
गभीरम्: gabhīram — unfathomable

Nasadiya Suktam lyrics in full

All seven verses of Rig Veda 10.129, printed without the Vedic accent marks.

All 7 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Nasadiya Suktam PDFAll 7 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

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Verse 1

नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत् ।
किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम् ॥

At that time there was neither non-being nor being; there was no realm of space and no sky beyond it. What stirred, and where, and under whose shelter? Was there water, deep and unfathomable?

Verse 2

न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि न रात्र्या अह्न आसीत्प्रकेतः ।
आनीदवातं स्वधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन्न परः किं चनास ॥

There was neither death nor immortality then, and no sign to tell night from day. That One breathed without wind by its own inner power; apart from it there was nothing else at all.

Verse 3

तम आसीत्तमसा गूळ्हमग्रेऽप्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वमा इदम् ।
तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम् ॥

In the beginning darkness lay hidden in darkness; all this was an undistinguished flood. The living seed that was covered by emptiness, that One, was born through the power of tapas (inner heat).

Verse 4

कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि मनसो रेतः प्रथमं यदासीत् ।
सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन्हृदि प्रतीष्या कवयो मनीषा ॥

In the beginning desire arose in it, desire that was the first seed of mind. Searching in their hearts with wisdom, the seers found the bond of being in non-being.

Verse 5

तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः स्विदासी३दुपरि स्विदासी३त् ।
रेतोधा आसन्महिमान आसन्स्वधा अवस्तात्प्रयतिः परस्तात् ॥

Their cord was stretched across; was there a below, was there an above? There were bearers of seed and there were great powers; self-power below, impulse above.

Verse 6

को अद्धा वेद क इह प्र वोचत्कुत आजाता कुत इयं विसृष्टिः ।
अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यत आबभूव ॥

Who truly knows, and who here can declare it, from where it was born and from where this creation came? The gods came later than the creation of this world, so who knows from where it arose?

Verse 7

इयं विसृष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न ।
यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्सो अङ्ग वेद यदि वा न वेद ॥

From where this creation arose, whether it was made or whether it was not, the one who watches over it in the highest heaven, he surely knows; or perhaps even he does not know.

The syllable people get wrong

In verse 5 the word svidāsī3t is printed with a small 3: this is not a digit to read aloud but the pluta mark, meaning the final ī of āsī is drawn out to three beats as a question ("svid-aa-seeee-t"), the same in svidāsī3d just before it. Saying "three" or reading a short ī loses the hymn's only sounded question mark.

Questions

The opening line reads "At that time there was neither non-being nor being." Na asat asit means "non-being was not", and no sat asit means "nor was being"; tadanim is "then". The seer denies both terms at once, because neither existence nor its absence can be named before the distinction itself arose. The rest of verse 1 goes on to deny space and the sky beyond it, and asks whether there was water, deep and unfathomable.

The hymn is anonymous in the modern sense, as are all Rig Veda hymns, but the Anukramani, the traditional index that names the seer, metre and subject of each sukta, assigns it to Prajapati Parameshthin. Its metre is trishtubh. Sayana calls its subject Bhavavrittam, the course of becoming. Later commentators have disagreed on whether Parameshthin here means Prajapati as Brahma or the supreme Self; the Vedic indexes read it as Prajapati.

Verse 7 says that the one who watches over creation from the highest heaven "surely knows, or perhaps even he does not know". Readers divide on this. Some take it as genuine doubt about whether any being stands outside the beginning; others, following the Vedantic reading, take it as a way of saying that the source lies beyond knower and known. Verse 6 has already noted that the gods themselves came after creation, so they cannot report on it.

Both sit in the tenth mandala, but they answer the question of origins differently. The Purusha Suktam (Rig Veda 10.90) gives an account: the world, its creatures and its orders come from the sacrifice of a cosmic person. The Nasadiya Sukta (10.129) gives no account at all; it describes the state before any distinction, points to desire and tapas as the first stirrings, and ends by asking who could know. One is a charter for ritual, the other a sustained question.

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