Chapter 29 of 51 · Uma Samhita · Overall chapter 343 of 464
The Original Creation
Having concluded the dialogue between Sanatkumara and Vyasa, Suta begins the Samhita's genealogical second half with the primordial creation: the cosmic egg floating on water, Brahma's emergence from it, his seven mind-born sons, and the eventual necessity of sexual reproduction once purely mental creation failed to produce lasting increase.
Shounaka said
I have heard the great account of supreme meaning you told, the conversation between Sanatkumara and Kaleya. Now I wish to hear of Brahma's creation. Please tell me how it arose, as you heard it from Vyasa.
Suta replied
Sage, listen to this divine account that destroys all sins, full of many kinds of extensive learning. One who repeatedly teaches or reads it saves his own lineage and gains greatness in heaven. The supreme Purusha is eternal and has existence and non-existence in his self. Though without any sense of ownership he took the form of the supreme Purusha to create the worlds. He is the creator of all beings and devoted to Narayana. Best of sages, know him as infinitely energetic brahman. He is beyond conception, yet all pure kalpas arise in him. I bow to that Svayambhu, and bow again to Hiranyagarbha Purusha Ishvara. I will tell of the excellent creation. Brahma is the creator, Hari the preserver and Maheshvara the destroyer, and from one age to another there is no other cause of creation. Svayambhu Bhagavan wished to create many kinds of beings, so first he made water and released his energy into it. Water is called Naara and its offspring Nara, and since he first lay on the water he is called Narayana. A golden egg floated on the water, and from it Brahma himself, called Svayambhu, was born. After staying there a year, Bhagavan Hiranyagarbha split the egg in two and made heaven and earth, with fourteen worlds above and below. Between the two halves the lord made the sky. He made earth, flooded by water, and the ten directions in the heavens. Then he made mind, speech, desire, anger and union. By his mental powers he made seven very energetic sons: Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu and Vasishtha, whom the Puranas fix as the seven brahmanas. From his anger Brahma then made the Rudras. He made the rishi Sanatkumara, older than all others; the other seven and all the Rudras were born later. Sanatkumara stays there holding back his energy. From those seven came divine, great lineages worshipped by gods and rishis. Those great sages had offspring and were adorned with rites. Lightning, thunder, red clouds and the rainbow were made, and having made water first he made clouds. For sacrifices he made hymns of the Rig, Yajur and Sama Vedas, which we have heard are always used in sacrificing to the gods and worshipping them. He made the gods from his mouth, the ancestors from his chest, men through union and asuras from his hips. From his limbs he made higher and lower species. So Prajapati began creating beings from water, but though created they did not multiply, so he divided his own body into male and female. In this way he made beings, and his greatness pervaded the universe. Vishnu made Viraja, the Virat Purusha; know this to be a second Manu who began this manvantara. The lord Purusha made all beings through Viraja. In Narayana's creation beings were not born through the womb. They were blessed and long-lived, with deeds and offspring. Suta told the sage he had thus told of the first creation, and one who knows it gains his desired destination.
Retold in our own words from Bibek Debroy's English translation of the Shiva Purana (Penguin Classics). Names, numbers and the order of events follow the source.