Markandeya then related that the Divine Being said: “I create myself into new forms. I take my birth in the families of virtuous men.... I create gods and men, and Gandharvas and Rakshas and all immobile beings, and then destroy them all myself (when the time cometh). For the preservation of rectitude and morality, I assume a human form; and when the season for action cometh, I again assume forms that are inconceivable. In the Krita Age I become white, in the Treta Age I become yellow, in the Dwãpara I become red, and in the Kali Age I become dark in hue.... And when the end cometh, assuming the fierce form of Death, alone I destroy all the three worlds with their mobile and immobile existences.... Alone do I set agoing the wheel of Time: I am formless: I am the Destroyer of all creatures: and I am the cause of all efforts of all my creatures.”[159]
[159] _Mahabharata, Vana Parva_, section clxxxix, P. C. Roy's translation.
Markandeya afterwards witnessed “the varied and wondrous creation starting into life”.
The theory of Metempsychosis, or Transmigration of Souls, is generally regarded as being of post-Vedic growth in India as an orthodox doctrine. Still, it remains an open question whether it was not professed from the earliest times by a section of the various peoples who entered the Punjab at different periods and in various stages of culture. We have already seen that the burial customs differed. Some consigned the dead hero to the “House of Clay”, invoking the earth to shroud him as a mother who covers her son with her robe, and the belief ultimately prevailed that Yama, the first man, had discovered the path leading to Paradise, which became known as the “Land of the Fathers” (Pitris). The fire worshippers, who identified Agni with the “vital spark”, cremated the dead, believing that the soul passed to heaven like the burnt offering, which was the food of the gods. It is apparent, therefore, that in early times sharp differences of opinion existed among the tribes regarding the destiny of the soul. Other unsung beliefs may have obtained ere the Brahmans grew powerful and systematized an orthodox creed. The doctrine of Metempsychosis may have had its ancient adherents, although these were not at first very numerous. In one passage of the _Rigveda_ “the soul is spoken of as departing to the waters or the plants”, and it “may”, says Professor Macdonell, “contain the germs of the theory” of Transmigration of Souls.[160]