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Ekarnava – The primordial Ocean In Hinduism

As per Hindu beliefs, at the end of a cycle of creation, the cosmic dissolution takes place. The universe then lay dissolved in Ekarnava, the only primordial Ocean. Ekarnava has a deep symbolic meaning and is mentioned in many Puranas and the epics.


Symbolically, Ekarnava is that state of the universe when there is complete stillness. The universe stays in this form for period of thousands of years before the first creation appears.

Vishnu stays asleep atop the interminable coils of Ananta Sesha on the waters of Ekarnava.

In some scriptures, Ekarnava is the great ocean with mountainous waves which absorbs the entire universe during the end of a cycle of creation.

Is Ekarnava an ocean as imagined by human beings? Or is it something that we humans have never seen or imagined which has the power to dissolve the entire universe.