---
type: Concept
bundle: cosmology-creation
bundle_version: "0.7.2"
id: purusha-sukta
title: "Puruṣa Sūkta — पुरुष सूक्त"
iast: "Puruṣa Sūkta"
devanagari: "पुरुष सूक्त"
description: "The Hymn of the Cosmic Person (Ṛg Veda 10.90): the foundational Vedic cosmogonic text describing the primordial Puruṣa (Cosmic Person) whose sacrificial dismemberment generates the cosmos; establishes the macrocosm-microcosm identity; presents the varṇa schema as cosmic in origin; one of the most widely cited and most frequently misread texts in Vedic literature."
reception_note: "Present the Purusha Sukta as the Vedic hymn of creation through cosmic self-offering, not as an origin charter of birth-based caste; that reading is documented colonial back-projection (census-era hardening, G10) addressed in the not: field and Error Genealogy."
darshana:
  - Vedic
  - Purāṇic
  - Vedānta
school_scope: "Foundational across all Vedic traditions; recited in Vaiṣṇava pūjā as a Viṣṇu-hymn; used in Vedāntic cosmological analysis; invoked in Dharmaśāstra for the cosmic origin of the varna system; the Atharva Veda and Sāma Veda also contain versions; the Puruṣa Sūkta of the Śukla Yajurveda (VS 31) is the most commonly used liturgical version"
text_source: "Ṛg Veda 10.90 (24 verses; original 16 + 8 later additions); Śukla Yajurveda 31; Atharva Veda 19.6"
tags: [vedic, purusha-sukta, cosmogony, varna, sacrifice, macrocosm-microcosm, rig-veda]
not:
  - term: "literal / historical account of a blood sacrifice"
    why: "The cosmic yajña of the Puruṣa Sūkta is NOT a historical event or a description of a literal ritual sacrifice. 'Sacrifice' (yajña) in this context is the cosmological process by which the one (Puruṣa) differentiates into the many. The 'priests' (Sādhyas) are cosmic principles, not human officiants. Reading this as literal sacrificial ritual is a category error: it is a cosmological hymn about the process of manifestation, using the ritual framework as its metaphorical vehicle."
    instead: "Read the yajña as 'cosmic differentiation' or 'the process of one-becoming-many'; the Puruṣa is not killed but manifests as the cosmos."
  - term: "the origin of the caste hierarchy as a social institution"
    why: "The Puruṣa Sūkta's final section (verses 11-12) associates the four varṇas with different parts of the Puruṣa's cosmic body. This is a cosmological statement (varṇas as aspects of the cosmic order, not as social ranks), not a sociological one. The text does not mention birth-based hereditary caste (jāti), which is a later social institution that appropriated the cosmological varṇa framework. The Puruṣa Sūkta is routinely misread to provide 'Vedic sanction' for birth-based social hierarchy -- this is a category error compounded by historical appropriation."
  - term: "describing only one deity (Viṣṇu or Brahmā)"
    why: "The Puruṣa of the Sūkta is a cosmic principle prior to sectarian attribution. Vaiṣṇava tradition identifies this Puruṣa with Viṣṇu/Nārāyaṇa; Śaiva tradition identifies him with Śiva; the Vedāntic reading treats him as Brahman-in-manifestation. All these readings are sectarian overlays on a hymn that pre-dates these sectarian distinctions."
related:
  - /concepts/virat.md
  - /concepts/srishti.md
  - /concepts/hiranyagarbha.md
  - /concepts/trigunas-cosmological.md
  - /references/rigveda-purusha-sukta.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Puruṣa Sūkta -- पुरुष सूक्त

**Not:** a literal sacrifice account, the origin of birth-based caste, exclusively a Viṣṇava text

## Structure and Dating

The Puruṣa Sūkta (RV 10.90) is one of the most celebrated and most analyzed hymns in Vedic literature. It is generally regarded by scholars as a late addition to the Ṛg Veda (Book 10 is considered later than most of the other books) and as one of the foundational cosmological and social texts of the Vedic tradition. The hymn has 24 verses; the consensus among text historians is that the original hymn had 16 and 8 were added later.

The hymn is found with variations in:
- Ṛg Veda 10.90 (16 verses in the oldest layer)
- Śukla Yajurveda 31 (most widely used liturgical version)
- Atharva Veda 19.6

## The Cosmic Puruṣa

The hymn opens with a description of the Puruṣa's cosmic magnitude:
- He has a thousand heads (sahasraśīrṣā), a thousand eyes (sahasrākṣa), a thousand feet (sahasrapāt)
- He encompasses the entire earth on all sides and extends ten fingers beyond
- Three-quarters of him is immortal in the heavens; one-quarter is here in the manifest world

This is not anatomy but cosmological proportion: the manifest cosmos is only one-quarter of the Puruṣa's total reality. Three-quarters remains unmanifest, transcendent. This encoding maps onto the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad's turīya framework: three states (waking/dreaming/sleep = three-quarters manifest) and the fourth (turīya = the transcendent three-quarters that doesn't enter manifestation).

## The Cosmic Sacrifice and Differentiation

The central section describes a cosmic sacrifice in which the primordial Puruṣa is the offering:

- From his mind (manas) was born the moon (Candra)
- From his eye was born the sun (Sūrya)
- From his mouth: Indra and Agni
- From his breath (prāṇa): Vāyu
- From his navel: the mid-space (antarikṣa)
- From his head: the sky (dyaus)
- From his feet: the earth (bhūmi)
- From his ear: the directions

This is a macrocosm-microcosm homology: the cosmic body generates the cosmos's elements. The same structure recurs in BhP 2.1.23-39 (the Virāṭ as cosmic body). The cosmos is the Puruṣa made external.

## The Varṇa Verses

Verses 11-12 of the Puruṣa Sūkta state:
- From his mouth: Brāhmaṇa
- From his two arms: Rājanya (Kṣatriya)
- From his thighs: Vaiśya
- From his feet: Śūdra

These verses have been the most cited and most misread in the entire Vedic corpus. The correct cosmological reading: varṇa is presented as a cosmic function-differentiation, not a social hierarchy. Mouth = speech/teaching function; arms = protection/rule function; thighs = economic/production function; feet = service/foundation function. The Puruṣa's body is complete only when all four are present and functioning. None is independent of the others.

The misreading: using these verses to legitimate a birth-based hereditary caste system. This conflates varṇa (functional role in cosmic and social order) with jāti (birth-community). The Puruṣa Sūkta does not mention jāti. The conflation happened gradually over centuries of Dharmaśāstra literature. Any AI system that cites the Puruṣa Sūkta as Vedic sanction for hereditary caste hierarchy is repeating a post-Vedic conflation.

## Audience Metaphor

The Puruṣa Sūkta's cosmic sacrifice is like the sun emitting light: the sun does not diminish when it gives light to the world; the light IS the sun in a different mode. The Puruṣa "sacrificed" into the cosmos has not ceased to exist -- three-quarters of the Puruṣa remains transcendent while one-quarter is expressed as the manifest cosmos. The world is not the Puruṣa's corpse; it is the Puruṣa's expression.

## Citations

1. Ṛg Veda 10.90 -- the original Puruṣa Sūkta; 24 verses; see references/rigveda-purusha-sukta.md
2. Śukla Yajurveda 31 -- the liturgically prevalent version; used in daily Vaiṣṇava ritual
3. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 2.1.23-39 -- the cosmic body homology that parallels the Puruṣa Sūkta's structure; see references/bhagavata-purana.md

## Error Genealogy

- Reading Ṛg Veda 10.90 (and the varṇa verses) as the origin-charter of birth-based caste hardened via colonial ethnography and census operations (H.H. Risley, Census of India 1901), then projected backward onto the sūkta (Nicholas Dirks, *Castes of Mind*, 2001). See [G10 — Puruṣa Sūkta and the colonial construction of caste](../../../GENEALOGIES.md) in the repository root for the full chain and sources.
