Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c9.74

c9.74

X, 90 is the famous *Purusha-Sūkta*, hymn to the *Ādi-Purusha*, Primordial Being, Who comprehends all that is, has been, or will be (*Purusha eva idam sarvam yat bhūtam, yat cha bhāvyam*), the Lord of Immortals and Mortals who grow by food (*amṛitatvasya īśānaḥ yat annena atirohati*). But His greatness is not confined to these limits of Time, past, present, or future: He is beyond Time (*Etāvān Asya mahimā ataḥ jyāyān cha Pūrushaḥ*). For all created beings of past, present, and future only represent a fourth part of Him. The larger part of Him is not manifest in mortal creation (*pādaḥ Asya viśvā bhūtāni tripāt Asya Amṛitam*). Three-fourths of Him are in the transcendent state (i.e. above *māyā*) (*tripāt ūrdhvaḥ udait Purushaḥ*). A fourth of Him (*māyā-pāda*) came into being in this world again after its dissolution (*pādaḥ Asya iha abhavat punaḥ*). Then He, becoming Many (*Vishvam*), penetrated into all forms, animate and inanimate (*vyakrāmatsāśanānaśane*). Thus the process of creation is that out of the Ādi-purusha arises the *Virāṭ-deha* (*vividhāni rājamte vastūni atra iti Virāt*, "in Whom are contained all objects") the universe-body (*brahmāṇḍa-deha*). Seizing that body, He vitalized it and created out of it the *Virāṭ-purusha* (*Tasmāt virāṭ ajāyata Virājaḥ adhi-Purushaḥ*). The *Virāt-purusha*, thus born, extended itself (*atyarichyata = atiriktaḥ abhūt*) beyond its original form, covering space on all sides (*bhūmim viśvataḥ vṛitvā*) and also the inner world (*daśāngulam*) (i.e. both macrocosm and microcosm), He of countless heads, eyes, and feet (as representing all created beings) (*Sahasraśīrshā Purushaḥ Sahasrākshaḥ Sahasra-pāt*). He the offered up in sacrifice His body as the material out of which the Universe was made, its creatures of the air, of the forests, of the villages, horses and cattle, goats and sheep, the four classes of mankind, Brāhmaṇa, Rājanya, Vaiśya, and Śūdra, the sun and moon, air and sky, the earth and its four quarters, the different worlds, and also supreme knowledge as revealed in Vedic hymns, chants, metres, and sacrificial formulae and the gods themselves.