Some major religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism have the Creation Story, which describes how God created the universe, the earth and then the first man and woman, who are regarded as the father and mother of all mankind.
Does Hinduism also have the Creation Story?
Hinduism doesn't have a creation story, it has a lots of creation stories. Creation stories are central to puranas, local myths and beliefs. So there are a lot of variations to the stories even between purana to purana. But regarding the concept of first man and woman, yes it's also there in Hinduism. They are known as Manu and Shatarupa.
However, the creation stories are not exactly like that of the other religions where God created the world and the first man and woman just appeared inside it in the sixth day or so. In most of the puranas the creation process starts from Vishnu, from whom arises Brahma and then Brahma creates all other beings. Among all the beings that are created, not all were of the same type. Some were gods, some were demons, some were sages and so on. So Manu was one of the created beings who propagated the human lineage on earth. He even built a boat during a great flood to preserve life on earth. You will find this similar to Noah's ark story.
But apart from the stories, scriptures also maintain statements in favour of evolutionary process of creation. For example, the Taitariya Upanishad says:
tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ ākāśādvāyuḥ vāayoragniḥ agnerāpaḥ adabhyaḥ pṛthivī pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ oṣadhībhyonnam annātpuruṣaḥ [Tait. Up. - 2.1]
Meaning
Verily from this Self (the singularity) arose the space; from space air, from air fire, from fire water, from water earth, from earth minerals, from minerals vegetation and from vegetation man.
So because Hinduism doesn't have only one authoritative book, there is no single authoritative creation story. And because creation stories are part of mythology they tend to vary from scripture to scripture at least to some extent.
Reference:
Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.5
Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.6
Creation Story of the universe can be described as a Big Loop which include many nested loop systems. Will start with a loop that actually describes how Earth and Creatures created.
Brahma as all know is Shrushtikarta, means he have the ultimate power to creation. The time of Brahma will start after a Brahma Kalpa. Brahma Kalpa is like replacement of Brahma. When new person take charge as Bramha he will pray Lord Vishnu to give powers to make creations. Lord Vishnu will give powers to Brahma to create universe.
Initial stage of the universe will be in the shape of Golden Egg this Egg is created by Bramha, so Bramha is also called as Hiranyagarbha. This Egg will split into two parts, top half will become 7 Oordhvalokas and below part becomes 7 Adharalokas. This completes first stage of Srushti.
Then comes other creations. Since Brahma can't handle everything, he will create few assistants. First Bramha creates 4 sons Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana and Sanatkumara. But they refused to assist him in his creation process and proceed to be in Bramhacharya forever. Then Bramha creates 9 sons together they called NavaBramha and they are, Marichi, Atri, Angirasa, Pulastya, Pulaha, Pratu, Bhrugu, Vasista and Daksha. Narada is considered as Bramha Manasa Putra but will not take part in Srushti. Then these 9 sons of Brahma carried Srushti.
Pratu one among nine sons of Brahma had assigned with the task to find a suitable place for Srushti. He searched all locations to find a suitable planet. Then he choose planet Earth to continue Srushti. Because Pratu found this planet, so this planet is named accordingly Pruthvi.
This process will be continued only when Brahma will change. Between this change there will be again small Srushti. There is also a case where Srushti will happen only on earth. This will be at the end of all Yugas. There are different ways of ending to all creatures on this earth. This depends on how many times all 4 Yugas repeated. This small ending is called as Pralaya. In a normal case, Jala Pralaya will happen. In case of Jala Pralaya, Markandeya Mahamuni will prepare a big Boat, big enough to fit all life samples in it. Then he will collect all life samples in it and tie that boat to Mainaka Parvata. After the end of Jala Pralaya, he will start the Srushti again.
There is more to explain but less time. I have just mentioned basics of Srushti. You can find different explanation in different scripts. What I have given is from Bhagavatam. Still there is lot to explain, but I too have less info with me.
I dont know, whether I am overshooting the concept, but there is a very interesting observation you take from Dasavatharam ( the 10 avatars of God).
Now, I dont want to say that the person who wrote it, had all these ideas in mind. But have a look again.. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashavatara
This was Charles Darwins theory written by Bhagavata Purana and Vishnu Purana around 200 BC to 20 BC.
