Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.26

v2.c4.26

Puruṣa, or Pūruṣa, is the generic term for ‘man’ in the Rigveda¹ and later.² Man is composed of five parts according to the Atharvaveda,³ or of six according to the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa,⁴ or of sixteen,⁵ or of twenty,⁶ or of twenty-one,⁷ or of twenty-four,⁸ or of twenty-five,⁹ all more or less fanciful enumerations. Man is the first of animals,¹⁰ but also essentially an animal (see Paśu). The height of a man is given in the Kātyāyana Śrauta Sūtra¹¹ as four Aratnis (‘cubits’), each of two Padas (‘feet’), each of twelve Aṅgulis (‘finger’s breadths’); and the term Puruṣa itself is found earlier¹² as a measure of length.