The verse and its meaning · Vedas · Vedas — The Golden Womb

Who Holds the Sky Up

Rig Veda 10.121.5

येन द्यौरुग्रा पृथिवी च दृळ्हा येन स्वः स्तभितं येन नाकः। यो अन्तरिक्षे रजसो विमानः कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम

Meaning · English

By whom the mighty sky and earth are made fast, by whom the bright heaven and the vault are held up, who spans the mid-air — to which god shall we offer?

The poet climbs the layers of the world and finds the same unseen hand at every level. The sky is called mighty, and the earth is fixed so it does not shift. Heaven is propped from below so it cannot fall, and the high vault is set in place. In the middle air, the same one stretches out the expanse. Sāyaṇa reads the vault as the sun and that expanse as the waters of the mid-air, which this one makes. No name is given, so the closing question stays open.

A large tent at a fair stands on one centre pole. Pull the pole and the roof drops, the walls fold, and the room inside is gone. People under the canvas rarely look at it. Earth, heaven and the air between keep their places in the same way, held up by a support the eye does not catch.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Mountains, Sea and Open Arms · Rig Veda 10.121.4
• Next: Where the Sun Rises · Rig Veda 10.121.6
• All of Vedas · Ask Krishna about it

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