Edifying Puzzlement: Ṛgveda 10. 129 and the Uses of Enigma

Abstract

This paper reconsiders RV 10.129 in order to explore its meaning and the more general functions of riddle hymns and other enigmas in the Veda. Its starting point is the unresolved question that concludes the hymn. This question calls into doubt the possibility of any cosmogonic narrative, including the narrative that the hymn itself has just offered. The lack of resolution within the hymn causes the audience of RV 10.129 to reflect. But in doing so, that audience is actually recovering the power of creation, for the hymn identifies thinking as the original creative activity. Thus, the solution to the hymn and to the question of the origin of things rests both in what the poem says and, even more, in the response it evokes from its audience.

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