---
type: Reference
bundle: cosmology-creation
bundle_version: "0.7.2"
id: rigveda-purusha-sukta
title: "Puruṣa Sūkta -- Ṛg Veda 10.90"
description: "Rig Veda 10.90; the cosmic-person hymn of creation through self-offering."
timestamp: "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z"
iast: "Puruṣa Sūkta"
devanagari: "पुरुष सूक्त"
text: "Ṛg Veda"
text_division: "Maṇḍala 10, Sūkta 90"
language: "Vedic Sanskrit"
approximate_date: "c. 1200-800 BCE (core verses); later 8 verses possibly added)"
tags: [vedic, rig-veda, purusha-sukta, cosmogony, sacrifice, varna]
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Puruṣa Sūkta -- Ṛg Veda 10.90

## Text Overview

The Puruṣa Sūkta (Hymn of the Cosmic Person) is Ṛg Veda 10.90, traditionally comprising 16 verses with 8 additional verses found in the Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda recensions. The hymn describes the cosmic Puruṣa as a being of 1000 heads, 1000 eyes, and 1000 feet, who both pervades and transcends the cosmos. Three-quarters of the Puruṣa is "immortal in heaven"; one quarter became the manifest world.

## The Cosmic Sacrifice

The central image is the Puruṣa-medha (cosmic sacrifice): the gods, the ṛṣis, and the seasons collectively offer the Puruṣa himself as the sacrificial oblation. From this cosmic self-offering arise:
- The Vedas (from his breath and mouth)
- The Moon (from his mind)
- The Sun (from his eye)
- Indra and Agni (from his mouth)
- Vāyu (from his breath)
- The sky (from his navel)
- The heavens (from his head)
- The earth (from his feet)
- The four directions (from his ears)

The critical interpretive point: this is a **cosmological process** (one-becoming-many through self-offering), not a description of a literal blood sacrifice. The "gods" performing the sacrifice exist after the sacrifice; the hymn is using sacrificial language to describe the structure of manifestation.

## The Varṇa Verses (RV 10.90.11-12)

Verses 11-12 describe the origin of the four varṇas:
- Brāhmaṇa from the Puruṣa's mouth
- Rājanya (Kṣatriya) from his arms
- Vaiśya from his thighs
- Śūdra from his feet

**Critical disambiguation**: this is a cosmological-functional differentiation (society as an organic body with differentiated functions), not the origin of birth-based caste (jāti). Varṇa in the Puruṣa Sūkta describes cosmic functions within an organic social body; jāti is a later social-historical institution that subsequently attached itself to the varṇa framework. The conflation of varṇa (cosmological function) with jāti (birth-group) is the source of one of the most consequential misreadings in Indian social history.

## Primary Concepts Using This Reference

- purusha-sukta.md (primary)
- srishti.md
- trigunas-cosmological.md
