The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Tad Ekam
682
T
Tad Ekam
(“That One”) Epithet used in Rg Veda
hymn 10.129, the so-called Creation
Hymn, to designate the first living being
on the earth. The four Vedas are the oldest
Hindu religious texts, and based on
its style and content, the Rg Veda is the
oldest of the Vedas. Most of the hymns in
the Rg Veda are invocations addressed to
various divinities, sung to propitiate
these divinities so that human beings
may enjoy the good things of this life.
The Creation Hymn takes a far more
speculative tone, standing in marked
contrast to the confidence and optimism
found in the earlier hymns. In the
Creation Hymn, the poet begins by
imagining a time before the existence of
Being and Nonbeing and speculates on
how the world came to be.
In the end, the poet ascribes all creation
to a single impersonal agent, That
One (Tad Ekam). This hymn is noteworthy
for ascribing the creation of the
world to a single power, an idea that
foreshadows the notion of Brahman in
the Upanishads, the speculative texts
that form the final stratum of the Vedic
literature. The name Tad Ekam, which is
grammatically a neuter noun, also foreshadows
the notion found in the
Upanishads that Brahman is an impersonal
force. After describing how That
One formed the cosmos and knew all its
secrets, the poem ends with the conjecture
that perhaps That One may not be
omniscient and omnipotent after all.
This hymn thus further foreshadows the
Upanishads in its speculative tone and
its admission that the ultimate answer
may be unknown.
Tagore, Rabindranath
(1861–1941) Poet and Nobel laureate in
Literature, an honor bestowed in 1912
for his Gitanjali (“Garland of Songs”).
Tagore came from an influential and
extremely wealthy landed family and
was thus able to focus all his energy on
his literary work. Aside from his prodigious
literary output, he lectured extensively
both in India and in other
countries; in the latter he emphasized
the need to retain spiritual values,
whereas in India he more often gave his
attention to the need to fulfill people’s
material needs. In 1921 he established
the Vishva-Bharati University at
Shantiniketan in the state of West
Bengal. The university was dedicated to
providing an education that would satisfy
both of these needs and thus develop an
integrated human being. For further
information see Krishna Kripalani,
Rabindranath Tagore: A Biography, 1980;
and Donald R. Tuck, “Rabindranath
Tagore: Religion as a Constant Struggle
for Balance,” in Robert D. Baird (ed.),
Religion in Modern India, 1998.
Tagore Jayanti
Holiday marking the birth date of the
Bengali poet, writer, and thinker
Rabindranath Tagore, celebrated on
May 8, the day he was born in 1861. As
with most twentieth-century figures,
Tagore’s birthday is celebrated according
to the solar calendar of the common
era, rather than the lunar calendar that
governs most religious observances.
Although Tagore is best known for his literary
work, he was also considered a
religious preceptor (guru), and thus his
birthday carries extra meaning.
Tai
Tenth month in the Tamil solar year,
corresponding to the northern Indian
solar month of Makara (the zodiacal
sign of Capricorn), which usually falls
within January and February. The existence
of several different calendars is
one clear sign of the continuing