being but one-quarter of him. The theory of sacrifice occupies, as in the later Indian literature generally, a prominent position. Purusha's sacrifice involved the momentous consequences of the creation of the several Vedas and of living creatures. The four castes sprang from different parts of his person, the parts corresponding to their relative dignity. The purpose of this portion is obvious, namely, to give greater sanctity to the system of caste, a system to which the earlier hymn makes no allusion, and which we may suppose to have grown up subsequently to the era of their composition. Tedious as it is, the Purusha Sûkta is too weighty to be quite passed over.
1. "Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.
On every side enveloping the earth, he overpassed (it) by a space of ten
fingers. 2. Purusha himself is this whole (universe), whatever has been
and whatever shall be. He is also the lord of immortality, since (or
when) by food he expands. 3. Such is his greatness, and Purusha is
superior to this. All existences are a quarter of him; and three-fourths
of him are that which is immortal in the sky. 4. With three-quarters
Purusha mounted upwards. A quarter of him was again produced
here. He was then diffused everywhere over things which eat and
things which do not eat. 5. From him was born Virāj, and from
Virāj, Purusha. When born, he extended beyond the earth, both behind
and before. 6. When the gods performed a sacrifice with Purusha
as the oblation, the spring was its butter, the summer its fuel, and the
autumn its (accompanying) offering. 7. This victim, Purusha, born in
the beginning, they immolated on the sacrificial grass. With him the
gods, the Sādhyas, and the Rishis sacrificed. 8. From that universal
sacrifice sprang the rich and sāman verses, the metnes and the yajush.
10. From it sprang horses, and all animals with two rows of teeth; kine
sprang from it; from it goats and sheep. 11. When (the gods) divided
Purusha, into how many parts did they cut him up? what was his
mouth? what arms (had he)? what (two objects) are said (to have been)
his thighs and feet? 12. The Brahman was his mouth; the Râjanya
was made his arms; the being (called) the Vaisya, he was his thighs; the
Sûdra sprang from his feet. 13. The moon sprang from his soul
(manas), the sun from his eye, Indra and Agni from his mouth, and
Vāyu from his breath. 14. From his navel arose the air, from his head
the sky, from his feet the earth, from his ear the (four) quarters; in this
