Hymn on the Origin of the Cosmos (Bhāvavṛttam)
Rigveda X.190 is a sūkta (hymn) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This short three-verse hymn is traditionally classed under the devatā Bhāvavṛttam — "the course of existence" — rather than addressed to a single deity. It traces a sequence of cosmic origination: from kindled heat come cosmic order and truth, then night, then the ocean, then the year, and finally the sun, moon, and the ordained regions of the world. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Cosmic order and truth were born from heat that had been kindled. Then night was born; then, from that, the ocean, the flooding sea.
2. From the ocean, the flooding sea, the year was born, the one who ordains days and nights, ruler over all that blinks its eyes.
3. The Ordainer set in place the sun and the moon, as before, and heaven, and earth, and the space between, and the world of light.
Translator's note: "viśvasya miṣato vaśī" in verse 2 (literally "ruler of all that blinks") is rendered to keep the image of blinking as a mark of living, breathing creatures. "Svaḥ" in verse 3, the fourth item alongside heaven, earth, and the middle air, is translated as "the world of light" (the luminous realm above the sky), its more common Vedic sense.
Colophon
Rigveda X.190 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.190
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
ṛtaṁ ca satyaṁ cābhīddhāt tapaso 'dhy ajāyata |
tato rātry ajāyata tataḥ samudro arṇavaḥ || 1 ||
samudrād arṇavād adhi saṁvatsaro ajāyata |
ahorātrāṇi vidadhad viśvasya miṣato vaśī || 2 ||
sūryācandramasau dhātā yathāpūrvam akalpayat |
divaṁ ca pṛthivīṁ cāntarikṣam atho svaḥ || 3 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).