Another myth closely resembles one which is indicated in the Hebrew Scriptures, viz., that Narayana, or the spirit of God, a self-existent entity, moved over the waters, and made them bring forth all things living. This Narayana is identical with the _yomer elohim_--"the spirit of God" of the Hebrew Genesis i. 2; the [--Greek--]--the spirit of God, or Holy Ghost of the Greeks. It is the same as the breezes of thick air which hovered over chaos in the legend assigned to Sanchoniathon (Cory's Fragments, p. 1), and produced the slimy matter from which all beings sprung. Narayana is again the same as the Night of the Orphic fragment which hovered with her black wings over immensity--the same as the _chakemah_, or "wisdom" of Proverbs viii.; the Greek _sophia_ and the _logos_--"the word" of John i. 1. The Buddha--or Brahma of the Hindoo. From this mysterious source matter was formed into shape and all creatures sprang into life.
Another Indian mythos (Moor's _Hindoo Pantheon_, p. 78), attributes even more than this to Brahma. He is said to have produced four beings who proved refractory, and grieved their maker. To comfort him, Siva issued from a fold in his forehead--then strengthened by Siva, he produced Bhrigu and the seven Rishis, and after that, Narada, from his thigh, Kardama from his shadow, and Dacsha from the forefinger of his right hand. He had, apparently, without a consort, sixty daughters, and from these last proceeded all things divine, human, animal, vegetable, and mineral.
This is not altogether dissimilar from the Hebrew idea of Jehovah creating all things except woman from the dust,* and forming her mysteriously from a rib of the only existing man. We may also compare it with the birth of Minerva from Jupiter's brain, and Bacchus from his thigh. But the Greek myth differs from the Hindoo, inasmuch as the deities referred to were originally conceived by human women, and did not grow from The Thunderer's body like branches from a tree.
* In Mythology, things ever repeat themselves, with very little alteration. For example, Mahadeva is represented as fighting with Dacsha, and producing heroes from the dost by striking the ground with his hair. (See Moor's H. P., p. 107).