Verse 1.12

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

तस्मिन्नण्डे स भगवानुषित्वा परिवत्सरम् ।
स्वयमेवात्मनो ध्यानात् तदण्डमकरोद् द्विधा ॥ १२ ॥

tasminnaṇḍe sa bhagavānuṣitvā parivatsaram |
svayamevātmano dhyānāt tadaṇḍamakarod dvidhā || 12 ||

That supreme lord, having dwelt in that egg for a y ear, himself, by his own thought, broke that egg into two parts.—(12)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘That Supreme Lord,’ Brahmā,—‘for a year,’ during a year,—‘having dwelt in that egg,’—the omniscient one, who had come into existence and was seated in the egg, thought of the way in which he would come out of it;—‘he broke the egg into two parts’;—one year is the time which the embryo takes for its development; so that after a year the egg, having reached its full development, burst (really), by reason of its full development having been reached. It is thus a chance coincidence that the egg burst just at the time that Brahmā was thinking of coming out; and it is in view of this coincidence that he is described as having broken the egg into two parts.—(12)

Explanatory notes

Parivatsaram—Kullū. alone takes this to mean ‘a year of Brahmā’; all others take it in the sense of the ordinary year; Cf. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 11. 1. 6. 2.

Dhyānāt—Medhātithi’s robust intellect again asserts itself: The Egg broke, not because the indwelling Brahmā willed it, hut because of its full development; and this coincided with Brahma’s wish to come out.