---
type: Reference
bundle: cosmology-creation
bundle_version: "0.7.2"
id: rigveda-hiranyagarbha-sukta
title: "Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta -- Ṛg Veda 10.121"
description: "Rig Veda 10.121; the golden-embryo cosmogony hymn (kasmai devaya havisha vidhema)."
timestamp: "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z"
iast: "Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta"
devanagari: "हिरण्यगर्भ सूक्त"
text: "Ṛg Veda"
text_division: "Maṇḍala 10, Sūkta 121"
language: "Vedic Sanskrit"
approximate_date: "c. 1200-900 BCE"
tags: [vedic, rig-veda, hiranyagarbha, cosmogony, golden-womb, sutratman]
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta -- Ṛg Veda 10.121

## Text Overview

The Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta is Ṛg Veda 10.121, comprising 10 verses. It is one of the oldest cosmogonic hymns in the Vedic corpus, predating the Nāsadīya Sūkta (10.129) in the same Maṇḍala. The hymn introduces the concept of Hiraṇyagarbha ("golden womb" or "golden embryo") as the first-born of the cosmos (*prathamo jāyata*) -- arising in the primordial waters before heaven and earth were differentiated.

## Key Verses

**RV 10.121.1 (The First-Born)**:
"*Hiraṇyagarbhaḥ samavartatāgre* -- Hiraṇyagarbha arose at the beginning; he was the one lord of all that was born. He established the earth and this heaven. Who is the god to whom we shall offer worship?"

The refrain "Who is the god?" (*kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema*) recurs in most verses and is answered in the final verse: the god is Prajāpati, the lord of creatures -- but the Upaniṣads and Vedānta identify Hiraṇyagarbha himself as the answer, the self-arising first principle of the manifest cosmos.

**RV 10.121.7 (Waters and Life)**:
"He who by his greatness became the sole king of the breathing and the blinking world, who governs all this -- two-footed and four-footed -- to what god shall we offer oblation?"

## Theological Significance

The Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta gives rise to one of the most important cosmological concepts in the entire tradition. Later texts develop Hiraṇyagarbha in two directions:

1. **As Brahmā** (Purāṇic): Hiraṇyagarbha is identified with Brahmā as the four-faced creator deity dwelling within the cosmic egg (Brahmāṇḍa); in this usage Hiraṇyagarbha and Brahmā become nearly synonymous at the functional level
2. **As Sūtrātman** (Vedāntic/Upaniṣadic): Hiraṇyagarbha is the subtle-cosmic totality, the "thread-self" (Sūtrātman) that connects all individual subtle bodies; this usage places Hiraṇyagarbha between Avyakta and Virāṭ in the Sṛṣṭi sequence

The Upaniṣads (esp. Muṇḍaka 1.1.6; Chāndogya 3.19) cite the hymn to ground the concept of the first-born cosmic principle that is both self-arising (not created by a prior agent) and the source from which Brahmā's creative activity flows.

## Primary Concepts Using This Reference

- hiranyagarbha.md (primary)
- srishti.md
- brahma-the-creator.md
- brahmanda.md
