---
type: Reference
bundle: cosmology-creation
bundle_version: "0.7.2"
id: rigveda-nasadiya
title: "Nāsadīya Sūkta -- Ṛg Veda 10.129"
description: "Rig Veda 10.129; the creation hymn that ends in cosmological agnosticism."
timestamp: "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z"
iast: "Nāsadīya Sūkta"
devanagari: "नासदीय सूक्त"
text: "Ṛg Veda"
text_division: "Maṇḍala 10, Sūkta 129"
language: "Vedic Sanskrit"
approximate_date: "c. 1200-900 BCE"
tags: [vedic, rig-veda, nasadiya, cosmogony, philosophical-hymn]
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Nāsadīya Sūkta -- Ṛg Veda 10.129

## Text Overview

The Nāsadīya Sūkta (named from its opening words: *nāsad āsīn* = "there was no non-being") is Ṛg Veda 10.129, comprising 7 verses. It is one of the most philosophically discussed texts in all Vedic literature and in comparative philosophy of religion, notable for its refusal to give a definitive cosmogonic answer.

## Verses (Selected Translation)

**RV 10.129.1-2 (Primordial State)**:
"Then there was neither being (sat) nor non-being (asat); neither the realm of space nor the sky beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, the deep abyss? There was neither death nor immortality then; no sign distinguishing night from day."

**RV 10.129.3 (The Breathing One)**:
"That one breathed, breathlessly, by its own power. Other than that, there was nothing beyond. Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning; all this was an undivided (aviśeṣa) ocean. What existed as a thing becoming was covered by emptiness -- that one arose through the power of tapas (heat/austerity)."

**RV 10.129.4 (First Differentiation)**:
"Desire (Kāma) arose first -- that was the first seed of the mind. Poets, seeking within their hearts with wisdom, discovered the connection between being and non-being."

**RV 10.129.7 (Epistemological Conclusion)**:
"He who is its overseer in the highest heaven -- he knows; or perhaps he does not know."

## Philosophical Significance

The hymn proceeds in three movements: (1) description of the undifferentiated pre-cosmic state transcending the categories of being/non-being, life/death, day/night; (2) the first differentiation through Kāma (creative desire) and tapas (concentrated heat/austerity); (3) epistemological humility culminating in the radical conclusion that even the highest deity may not know the origin.

The identification of **Kāma** (RV 10.129.4) as the "first seed of the mind" is the earliest Sanskrit text to name the cosmological creative impulse -- later systematized as Icchā-Śakti in Tāntric traditions and as Brahman's creative will in Vedānta.

The final verse (7) is philosophically unique in ancient literature: it refuses resolution from within the frame of any being that exists after creation, since no such being could have witnessed the pre-creation state.

## Primary Concepts Using This Reference

- nasadiya-sukta.md (primary)
- avyakta.md
- srishti.md
- hiranyagarbha.md
- iccha-jnana-kriya-shakti.md
