Vedic Mythology c4.s1.5

c4.s1.5

A mythological account of the origin of the universe, involving neither manufacture nor generation, is given in one of the latest hymns of the RV., the well-known *puruṣa-sūkta* (10, 90). Though several details in this myth point to the most recent period of the RV., the main idea is very primitive, as it accounts for the formation of the world from the body of a giant. With him the gods performed a sacrifice, when his head became the sky, his navel the air, and his feet the earth. From his mind sprang the moon, from his eye the sun, from his mouth Indra and Agni, from his breath, wind. The four castes also arose from him. His mouth became the *brāhmaṇa*, his arms the *rājanya* or warrior, his thighs the *vaiśya*, and his feet the *śūdra*. The interpretation given in the hymn itself is pantheistic, for it is there said (v. 2) that Puruṣa is ‘all this, both what has become and what shall be’. In the AV. (10, 17) and the Upaniṣads (Muṇḍ. Up. 2, 1¹⁰) Puruṣa is also pantheistically interpreted as identical with the universe. He is also identified with Brahma (Chānd. Up. 1, 7⁵). In the ŚB. (11, 1, 6¹) he is the same as Prajāpati, the creator.