Cosmic Egg

(brahmanda) One of the traditional
cosmological metaphors, which first
appears in the Markandeya Purana.
This text describes a single swollen
egg floating on the waters of the sea
of pralaya, or cosmic dissolution.
When this egg is broken open by
Brahma, its constituent parts (yolk,
white, shell, and various membranes)
form both the material universe and all
the creatures in it. Although this account
is clearly symbolic, it vividly expresses
the Hindu conviction that all things
have come from a single source,
and thus the entire cosmos is an
organic whole. For further elaboration see
Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen
(eds. and trans.), Classical Hindu
Mythology, 1978.