Mayan Creation

Popol Vuh tells the story of the gods and creation believed by the ancient Mayan people. Supernatural events and symbolic references to animals helps display creation as the act of either one God or many Gods. Rig Veda and The Bible also tell the stories of creation among other cultures and share many similar ideas. Mayan, Christian, and Hindi people all seem to believe the creator’s praise is of utmost importance and they share the common quality of the knowledge of good and evil; the good characters in the stories are usually shown as the victor, brave and obedient, while the evil are greedy and self-centric. All of the three cultures believed that before creation there was nothing and that creation was a supernatural occurrence
that was brought about by an almighty creator. The Mayans version of a creator was either multiple gods or one god that’s referred to by multiple names. The idea that humans are created to go forth and multiply is shown in Part 4 of Popol Vuh where the gods state that, “Morning has come for humankind, for the people of the face of the earth” (531).
One great creator named “Dhatar” is the creator of the sun, moon, heavens and the earth in Rig Veda. During Hymn 83 Parjanya of Rig Veda the floods are brought forth by a mighty bull, human life and the earth are refreshed by a flow of water, and the seed of life is planted. It reads,
“Come hither with this thunder while thou pourest the waters down, our heavenly Lord and Father. Thunder and roar: the germ of life deposit. Fly round us on thy chariot waterladen” (Griffith, Book 10 Hymn
190).

Similarly in The Bible, God is the only creator. God also tells humans their purpose, after creating them he tells them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (159). In each of the three stories there was an evil that was cleansed.
The knowledge of good triumphing over evil is a similarity all the stories share. In Popol Vuh the Seven Macaw, a character that is arrogant and self-centered is killed by Hunahpu and Xbalanque because when they saw him, “They had seen evil in his self-magnification” (526). The Rig Veda has an example of evil Indra kills Vrtra for stowing water behind the mountain. The story of Indra’s victory is marveled reading,
“There darkness stood, the vault that stayed the waters’ flow: in Vṛtra's hollow side the rain-cloud lay concealed. But Indra smote the rivers which the obstructer stayed, flood following after flood, down steep declivities” the god is then praised in Hymn 54 which claims Indra’s “power is matchless, matchless is his wisdom” (Griffith, Book 1 Hymn 54). Evil is introduced to Adam and Eve in the very beginning of The Bible because of the serpent and temptation and they are punished for their sin. After humans began to multiply on earth, God became upset because of the perpetual evil on earth and said, “I will wipe out the human race I created from the face of the earth, for human to cattle to crawling thing to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them”
(163).

Noah is then chosen to build an arc, survive the flood and restart the lineage of mankind because he was loyal to God. Noah is example of good, he is said to be righteous and he listened to and obeyed all of God’s orders. Creation is something that every person questions, no matter which culture they are from. These three cultures’ beliefs still boil down to the same basic factors. In fact it is actually in question whether the Christian religion and beliefs had an impact on the Mayan creation story or not. Each of the three works greatly praises the creator. The people responsible for writing these stories all believe in a master creator who made people to flourish and grow the earth. The peoples’ stories show they had morals of right and wrong and knew the difference between good and evil.