Shiva Purana — Vayaviya Samhita, Shloka 55
सर्गविभागवर्णनम्
Classification of Creation: the Nine Sargas and the Streams of Beings
पुत्रास्तमोरजःप्राया बलिनस्ते निशाचराः । सर्पा यक्षास्तथा भूता गंधर्वाः संप्रजज्ञिरे । वयांसि पक्षतः सृष्टाः पक्षिणो वक्षसो ऽसृजत् । मुखतोजांस्तथा पार्श्वादुरगांश्च विनिर्ममे
putrāstamorajaḥprāyā balinaste niśācarāḥ | sarpā yakṣāstathā bhūtā gaṃdharvāḥ saṃprajajñire | vayāṃsi pakṣataḥ sṛṣṭāḥ pakṣiṇo vakṣaso 'sṛjat | mukhatojāṃstathā pārśvāduragāṃśca vinirmame
« Tes fils sont surtout de tamas et de rajas : des êtres puissants qui se meuvent dans la nuit. Serpents, Yakṣa, Bhūta et Gandharva vinrent aussi pleinement à l’existence. Les oiseaux furent produits des ailes ; les êtres ailés, il les créa de la poitrine. De la bouche il façonna les hommes, et des flancs il forma aussi les êtres de nature serpentine. »
Narratorial voice within the Purāṇic account (speaker not specified in the supplied excerpt)
Tattva Level: pasha
Cosmic Event: population of the cosmos with tamas/rajas-dominant classes (niśācara, bhūta, yakṣa, etc.)
FAQs
In Sāṃkhya-influenced Purāṇic idiom, tamas and rajas are guṇas (fundamental modalities of prakṛti). To say certain beings are ‘predominantly’ tamas/rajas is not merely moral judgment but a cosmological classification: it situates forms of life within a spectrum of consciousness and activity. The verse thus frames diversity of beings as expressions of the guṇas, while still remaining within a devotional worldview in which all creatures arise within a sacred, ordered creation.