are found here in the following order: 1, 4, 3, 2, 11-14, 5-7, 10, 9, 8, 15. The same hymn occurs in VS. xxxi. (in the order of RV. verses 1-5, 8-10, 7, 11-14, 6, 15) and in TA. iii. 12 (in the order of RV. verses 1-6, 15, 7-14); also the first five RV. verses in the 7th or Nāigeya chapter of SV. ⌊Nāigeya 33-37 = SV. i. 618-622⌋ (in the order of RV. verses 1, 4, 2ab3cd, 3ab2cd, 5). The verses (except our 7 and 8) occur also in Pāipp. ix. In Vāit. (37. 19), the hymn is cited, with x. 2, in the puruṣamedha, accompanying the release of the human victim; and the comm. finds it used in the Çāntikalpa XV., and in Pariçiṣṭa x. 1.—⌊The Bombay ed. makes two hymns of this hymn: see note at end of the anuvāka, p. 9 15.⌋
⌊In the WZKM., xii. 277-280, von Schroeder reports the existence of the Purusha hymn in two recensions in the ṛcaka of the Kaṭhas, and observes that the passage may come from a Kaṭha Brāhmaṇa or Āraṇyaka. The first recension accords with that of RV.: the second also agrees in general with that of RV., except for the variants which I have reported below under verses 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 (the most important), 9, 12, 14; and, further, it agrees with RV. in the order of the verses from 1 to 15. For brevity, I refer to the source of these variants as the KaṭhaB.⌋
Translated: Griffith, ii. 262-265; and, as RV. hymn, very often: so by Colebrooke (1798), in Misc. Essays2, i. 183; by Burnouf (1840), in the Preface to his great folio ed. of the Bhāgavata Puraṇa (see pages cxiv to cxxiv); by Muir, v. 367; Ludwig, Der Rigveda, ii., p. 574, notes in v., p. 437; Grassmann, Rig-Veda, ii., p. 486; Zimmer, p. 217; Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen, pages 11-23 (with ample notes); Henry W. Wallis, Cosmology of the RV., p. 87; P. Peterson, Hymns from the RV., p. 289; Deussen, Geschichte, i. 1. 150-158 (repeated in his Sechzig Upanishads, p. 830).—Finally, as VS. hymn, it was translated by Weber (apropos of Anquetil du Perron's Upanishads), in Indische Studien, ix. 5, with instructive notes and introduction and a tabular view (p. 4) of the sequence of the verses in RV., TA., VS., and AV.; and also by Griffith, in The Texts of the White Yajurveda, p. 260.—It may be added that the text of the hymn with Sāyaṇa's comment was published as a separate work as no. 3 of the Ānanda Āçrama Series.—Burnouf cited and translated the hymn for the purpose of comparison with the corresponding passage in the Purāṇa, ii. 5. 35-6. 29, pages 235-241. Note the multum-in-parvo half of vs. 35, sahasro-”rv-an̄ghri-bāhv-akṣaḥ sahasrā-”nana-çīrṣavān.—Especial attention is called to Deussen's elaborate introduction to his translation in his Geschichte, as cited above, p. 150-156.
1. Thousand-armed is Purusha, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed; he, covering the earth entirely, exceeded it by ten fingers' breadth.
⌊The verse is RV. x. 90. 1; VS. xxxi. 1; SV. i. 618; TA. iii. 12. 1.⌋ All the other texts begin with sahásraçīrṣā (SV. -rṣāḥ); SV.VS. ⌊KaṭhaB.⌋ have in c sarvátas, and VS. after it spṛtvā́; ⌊von Schroeder reports the KaṭhaB. reading as smṛtvā́: but perhaps the intention of his mss. is rather spṛtvā́⌋. The comm. gives very long expositions of most of the verses, but casts no light upon them. ⌊Deussen, p. 150, calls the substitution of -bāhuḥ for -çīrṣā a "rationalizing variant: because, if Purusha has 1000 eyes, he ought to have only 500 heads"! But even the AV. comm. glosses sahasrākṣaḥ by bahubhir akṣibhir upetaḥ.⌋
2. With three feet he ascended the sky; a foot of him, again, was here; so he strode out asunder, after eating and non-eating.
