Earth Diver:
There is a legend in which it says the Earth was fished out of water. The universe was water first, with that water Prajapati wondered how the universe could be developed. He saw a lotus leaf standing in the water and thought “there must be something on which it rests”. So assuming the form of a boar he plunged in the water and found earth submerged in it. Breaking a portion of earth he rose to the surface. In other texts cosmic tortoise has been conceived as finding earth in the ocean.
In Ramayana sage Vashishta says that Brahma with all the other gods caused the earth to rise from water in the form of a boar and created everything that exists.
The other version says that a demon Hiranyaksa impressed brahma by penance and received a boon that no man, god or beast could kill him. While listing all whom he claimed exemption, he missed out boar. After receiving boon, Hiranyaksa started troubling the sages and gods. He stole the Vedas from Brahma while he was asleep and dragged earth in the netherland in his abode. Lord Vishnu assuming the form of a boar slayed him retrieved the Vedas and lifted the earth out on his tusks.
Creator as a Master Artificer:
Creator is one who creates depending upon the material using his skills. Brahmanaspati was a creator who created world with some pre-existent material. Not unlike other theories, where creation is out of nothing.
Primality of Water:
It is universally believed that in the beginning of creation there was nothing but vast expense of water shrouded in darkness. The universe did not exist at all in the beginning, but it had the desire to be someone, thus it practiced tapas as a result of which smoke, fire, flames, vapours, clouds were produced one after the other.
You will find many stories about the creation of the world in various other mythologies with some stories similar to the other.
The stories could be the imagination of the early people in order to explain the unexplained or could be facts explained in a very over exaggerated manner.
Man has a habit of thinking. This thinking could be rational or imaginative. Out of this man has created myths around himself. It would be wrong to judge puranas as man’s imagination. Puranas could be the representation of facts in an exaggerated way. It is also important to consider the puranas while studying the history of India. One cannot just neglect it or call it unreal. Puranas are religious Hindu texts about kings, gods and their incarnations, sages, the universe’s creation and destruction and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography. Like the Vedas, Puranas were remembered orally, in the later period they were modified and written.
The Creation of the World
In the Puranas there are various accounts of creation of the world
The Union of Sky and Earth:
The simplest concept is the sexual union of the parent Gods, Sky and Earth, Sky as father and Earth as mother. Their marriage results in rain, which fertilizes the Mother Earth, which gives birth to the living beings on earth. Together they form Dyavaprthivi.
World Egg:
Life emerged from an egg floating on the water. In Sanskrit it is called the Brahmanda (Brahma means Universe and Anda, Egg). The egg split in two, one half gold and the other silver. The silver half became earth, the golden half the sky, the white membrane became the mountains, membranes the clouds and mist, the small veins the rivers, the fluid the sea and from that the sun “ Aditya” was born.
The other concept is, the waters desired to reproduce, so they toiled and heated. When they heated a golden egg was produced. The egg floated for a year and then a man “Prajapati” was produced from it. In Mahabharta, Brahma is said to born from the golden egg.
Primeval Giant:
Gods performed a sacrifice with a giant. Due to which Giant’s body became the sky, navel the air and his feet the earth. The moon sprang from his mind and the sun from his eyes, from his mouth emerged “Indra” and “Agni” and he breathed “Vayu”. The four varnas arose from him, his mouth the Brahmana, arms the Rajanya, thighs the Vaishyas and feet the Sudras.
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