The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c14.34

v1.c14.34

In the late parts of the Rigveda and in the subsequent literature more serious attempts are made to solve the riddle of the production of the world, and Prajāpati appears as the creator god, though beside him there usually is to be found a primordial matter upon which he works. These ideas, however, belong not to the religion so much as to the philosophy of the Veda, and will more appropriately be treated later. One hymn,² the famous Puruṣasūkta, ‘hymn of man’, may contain in its very elaborate sacerdotal form traces of an early idea. It is there told how the world was produced by the gods from the sacrifice of a primeval giant: his head became the sky, his navel the air, and his feet the earth. The moon sprang from his mind, the sun from his eyes, Indra and Agni from his mouth, the wind from his breath, the four castes from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet in order of dignity. The hymn itself is frankly pantheistic, declaring that Puruṣa is all that is, that has been, and that shall be, and the mere precision by which the four castes are equated with the appropriate parts of the giant is clear proof that the idea as found in the hymn has been completely worked over in the interest of the priests. But the recurrence of the exception in Norse mythology is an indication, though not a proof, that the idea may be also popular and old. In the Brāhmaṇas Puruṣa takes naturally upon himself the character of Prajāpati.³