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 Vedasare the old-
est 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 opti-
mism 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 cre-
ation to a single impersonal agent, That
One (Tad Ekam). This hymn is notewor-
thy for ascribing the creation of the
world to a single power, an idea that
foreshadows the notion of Brahmanin
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 fore-
shadows the notion found in the
Upanishads that Brahman is an imper-
sonal force. After describing how That
One formed the cosmos and knew all its
secrets, the poem ends with the conjec-
ture 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 prodi-

gious literary output, he lectured exten-

sively 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 accord-

ing to the solar calendarof the common

era, rather than the lunar calendar that

governs most religious observances.

Although Tagore is best known for his lit-

erary work, he was also considered a

religious preceptor (guru), and thus his

birthday carries extra meaning.

Ta i

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 exis-

tence of several different calendars is

one clear sign of the continuing

Tad Ekam