There was neither nonexistence nor existence
then; there was neither the realm of space nor the
sky which is beyond.
What stirred?
Where?
In whose protection?
Was there water, bottomlessly deep?
There was neither death nor immortality then.
There was no distinguishing sign of night or day.
That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse.
Other than that there was nothing beyond.
Darkness was hidden by darkness in the
beginning…

“The Hymn of the Dark Beginning,” from the Hindu Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE)