Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 45, Shloka 47
Adhyaya 45 — Jaimini’s Cosmological Questions and the Opening of Markandeya’s Account of Primary Creation
न शान्ता नापि घोरास्ते न मूढाश्चाविशेषतः ।
भूततन्मात्रसर्गोऽयमहङ्कारात्तु तामसात् ॥
na śāntā nāpi ghorāste na mūḍhāścāviśeṣataḥ / bhūtatanmātrasargo 'yamahaṅkārāttu tāmasāt
彼等既非寂静，亦非猛烈，亦非迷乱——以其本质为非特定故。此诸粗大诸有之微细境（bhūta-tanmātra）的生成，出自我慢（ahaṅkāra）之昏暗性（tāmasa）方面。
{ "primaryRasa": "shanta", "secondaryRasa": "adbhuta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
The text assigns different products of creation to different modes/aspects: the subtle sensory potentials are traced to tāmasa ahaṅkāra. Ethically/psychologically, it implies that ‘objectification’ and material fixation arise when consciousness operates under obscuring inertia.
Sarga: it specifies the causal source (tāmasa ahaṅkāra) for the tanmātras within the primary creation framework.
Ahaṅkāra is the pivot where unity appears as multiplicity. Labeling the tanmātra stream as tāmasa suggests that the first step toward ‘matter’ is a veiling (tamas) that makes the subtle appear as externalizable qualities.