Purusha Sukta
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The Purusha Sukta gives a description of the spiritual unity of the universe. It presents the nature of Purusha, or the cosmic being, as both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent to it.[3] From this being, the Sukta holds, the original creative will (identified with Vishvakarma, Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati) proceeds which causes the projection of the universe in space and time.[4] The Purusha Sukta, in the seventh verse, hints at the organic connectedness of the various classes of society.
Purusha
The Purusha is defined in verses 2 to 5 of the Sukta. He is described as a being who pervades everything conscious and unconscious universally. He is poetically depicted as a being with thousand heads, eyes and legs, enveloping not just the earth, but the entire universe from all sides and transcending it by ten fingers length – or transcending in all 10 dimensions. All manifestations, in past, present and future, is held to be the Purusha alone.[5] It is also proclaimed that he transcends his creation. The immanence of the Purusha in manifestation and yet his transcendence of it is similar to the viewpoint held by panentheists. Finally, his glory is held to be even greater than the portrayal in this Sukta.
Creation
Verses 5–15 hold the
After the verse, the Sukta states that the moon takes birth from the Purusha's mind and the sun from his eyes. Indra and Agni descend from his mouth and from his vital breath, air is born. The firmament comes from his navel, the heavens from his head, the earth from his feet and quarters of space from his ears.[3] Through this creation, underlying unity of human, cosmic and divine realities is espoused, for all are seen arising out of same original reality, the Purusha.[6]
Yajna
The Purusha Sukta holds that the world is created by and out of a Yajna or exchange of the Purusha. All forms of existence are held to be grounded in this primordial yajna. In the seventeenth verse, the concept of Yajna itself is held to have arisen out of this original sacrifice. In the final verses, yajna is extolled as the primordial energy ground for all existence.[7]
Context
The Sukta gives an expression to immanence of radical unity in diversity and is therefore, seen as the foundation of the
The concept of the Purusha is from the Samkhya Philosophy. It seems to be an interpolation into the Rigveda since it is out of character with the other hymns dedicated to nature gods.[9]
The Purusha Sukta is repeated with some variations in the
Authenticity
The verses about social estates in the Purusha Sukta are considered to belong to the latest layer of the Rigveda by scholars such as V. Nagarajan, Jamison and Brereton. V. Nagarajan believes that it was an "interpolation" to give "divine sanction" to an unequal division in society that was in existence at the time of its composition. He states "The Vedic Hymns had been composed before the Varna scheme was implemented. The Vedic society was not organized on the basis of varnas. The Purusha Sukta might have been a later interpolation to secure Vedic sanction for that scheme".[11] Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton, a professor of Sanskrit and Religious studies, state, "there is no evidence in the Rigveda for an elaborate, much-subdivided and overarching caste system", and "the varna system seems to be embryonic in the Rigveda and, both then and later, a social ideal rather than a social reality".[12]
See also
- Śrī Sūkta
- Historical Vedic religion
- List of suktas and stutis
- Hymn of Creation)
- Agganna Sutta— a Buddhist critique
- Varna (Hinduism) and Caste system in India
Notes
- ^ ISBN 9780199370184.
- ^ ISSN 1084-7561.
- ^ a b The Purusha sukta in Daily Invocations by Swami Krishnananda
- Swami Krishnananda. A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India. Divine Life Society, p. 19
- ^ Aiyar, B.V. Kamesvara (1898). The Purusha Sukta. G.A. Natesan, Madras.
- ^ Koller, The Indian Way 2006, p. 44.
- ^ Koller, The Indian Way 2006, pp. 45–47.
- ISBN 0520247906.
- ^ S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1.
- ^ Visvanathan, Cosmology and Critique 2011, p. 148.
- ISBN 9781317169512.
- ISBN 978-0-19-937018-4.
- Sources
- Koller, John M. (2006), The Indian Way: An Introduction to the Philosophies & Religions of India (2nd ed.), Pearson Education, ISBN 0131455788
- Visvanathan, Meera (2011), "Cosmology and Critique: Charting a History of the Purusha Sukta", in Roy, Kumkum (ed.), Insights and Interventions: Essays in Honour of Uma Chakravarti, Delhi: Primus Books, pp. 143–168, ISBN 978-93-80607-22-1
- Rosen, Steven (2006), Essential Hinduism, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0275990060
Further reading
- Coomaraswamy, Ananda, Rigveda 10.90.1: aty atiṣṭhad daśāṅgulám, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 66, no. 2 (1946), 145-161.
- Deo, Shankarrao (Member of India's Constituent Assembly and co-author of the Constitution of India), Upanishadateel daha goshti OR Ten stories from the Upanishads, Continental Publication, Pune, India, (1988), 41–46.
- Swami Amritananda's translation of Sri Rudram and Purushasuktam,, Ramakrishna Mission, Chennai.
- Patrice Lajoye, "Puruṣa", Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée / New Comparative Mythologie, 1, 2013: http://nouvellemythologiecomparee.hautetfort.com/archive/2013/02/03/patrice-lajoye-purusha.html
- Purusha Sookta commentary by Dr. Bannanje Govindacharya.