The desire to imagine creation - Avani Tanya

India has been a country of ageless and countless myths that describe how man and earth were created. All these stories, unanimously worship nature and celebrate 'God' or a similar super power as the creator of life. Animals were believed to exist before man. Over centuries, these myths disappeared somewhere, most of them getting integrated into larger religions such as "Hinduism" and "Buddhism". This probably explains why these religions have multiple stories explaining creation. 

As a child i grew up listening to various versions of stories describing creation, including scientific theories of evolution and the Big bang theory. I often found it hard to understand why these myths were necessary..why did we have a strong desire to imagine creation? Tthrough these myths 'we seek an experience of being alive', we try to refer to those things that are beyond our understanding. The myth is a manifestation of the images within us. They are a magnification of our dreams, and experiences that are intrinsic to all mankind. This is probably also why almost all ancient creation myths around the world have common themes and imagery. They give us a cultural sense of belonging, relationships and kinship. They give justifications to very primal human emotions like greed, jealousy, love and hatred, and almost rid us of the guilt of doing sinful acts.

 I still dont know what these mean to me in the modern day and age. My mind wants to have greater faith in the scientific explanations, yet these stories move me in many ways. They are an artistic expression that speaks to each of us in personal ways. 

Here is a myth of the 'Gond' tribe from central india that i have always been fond of-

" One Gond myth, essentially a separation of heaven and earth myth tells us about how earth and sky fell in love and wanted to be married and the Creator agreed to celebrate their wedding. All creatures were invited tot he wedding and they all agreed to come except the Jackal. He warned the Creator that if Earth and Sky married, there would be no room left between their coupling for any creation to take place. The Creator understood this and decided to marry the Earth with the Sun instead." 

                                      
These are pictures of art and artifacts that depict native indian creation myths that I took on my visit to the "Museum of man" in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.