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Ramatsariar - texts and commentaries on the Vedas

Wander throughout the South of India and the Island of Ceylon, where tradition is preserved in all its purity, inquire of the Hindoo in his humble straw hut, or of the Brahmin in his temple; all will repeat to you this legend of the creation of man, as we are here about to relate it from the Veda. In the Bagaveda-Gita Christna recalls it in a few words to his disciple and faithful co-adjutor Ardjouna, and nearly in the same terms as in the sacred books.  The passages between inverted commas are simple translations from the text.

The earth was covered with flowers, the trees bent under their fruit, thousands of animals sported over the plains and in the air, white elephants roved unmolested under the shade of gigantic forests, and Brahma perceived that the time had come for the creation of man, to inhabit this dwelling-place.

He drew from the great Soul, from the pure essence, a germ of life:, with which he animated the two persons whom he made, male and female, that is, proper for reproduction, like plants and animals; and he gave them the ahancara that is, conscience, and speech, which rendered them superior to all he had yet created, but inferior to the angels, and to God.

He distinguished the man by strength, shape, and majesty, and named him Adima (in Sanscrit, the first man).

The woman received grace, gentleness, and beauty, and he named her Héva (in Sanscrit, what completes life).

Therefore, in giving Adima a companion, the Lord perfected the life bestowed on him, and in thus establishing the conditions under which humanity was about to be born, he proclaimed in earth and in heaven the equality of the man and the woman.

Divine principle, which has been more or less misunderstood by legislations, ancient and modern, and which India only abandoned under the deleterious influence of priests, at the Brahminical revolution.

The Lord then gave to Adima and to his wife Héva primeval Taprobane of the ancients, the Island of Ceylon, for a residence, well-fitted, from its climate, its products, and its splendid vegetation, to be the terrestrial paradise, cradle of the human race.

It is still, to-day, the loveliest pearl of the Indian Seas.

“Go, said he, unite, and produce beings who shall be your living image upon earth, for ages and ages after you have returned to me. I, Lord of all that exists, have created you to worship me throughout your life, and those who shall have faith in me shall share my happiness after the end of all things. Thus instruct your children that they forget me not, for I shall be with them while they continue to call upon my name."

Then he forbid Adima and Héva to quit Ceylon, and continued in these terms:

“Your mission is confined to peopling this magnificent island, where I have gathered together everything for your pleasure and convenience; and to implant my worship in the hearts of those to be born.  The rest of the world is as yet uninhabitable; if hereafter the number of your children so increase as to render this habitation insufficient to contain them, let them inquire of me in the midst of sacrifice, and I will make known my will."

This said, he disappeared.