📿 Shloka Collection

Purusha Sukta — Opening Verse

Rigveda 10.90.1 Vedic Mantra
📖 Rigveda 10.90 (Purusha Sukta)
सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् ।
स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्वात्यतिष्ठद्दशाङ्गुलम् ॥
Sahasra sheershaa Purushah sahasraakshah sahasrapaat |
Sa bhoomim vishvato vritvaa atyatishthad dashaangulam ||
सहस्रशीर्षा
with a thousand heads
पुरुषः
the cosmic Person / the Purusha
सहस्राक्षः
with a thousand eyes
सहस्रपात्
with a thousand feet
स भूमिम्
he, the earth
विश्वतः
on all sides
वृत्वा
enveloping / encompassing
अत्यतिष्ठत्
stood beyond / transcended
दशाङ्गुलम्
by ten fingers' breadth (symbolically, still transcends)

The Purusha Sukta (Rigveda 10.90) is one of the most cosmologically ambitious hymns in the Vedas. It opens with this image: the Purusha — the cosmic Person — has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. He envelops the entire earth on all sides, and still extends beyond it by ten fingers.

'A thousand' in Vedic language means infinite — beyond counting. The Purusha is not a person with a body that ends somewhere. He pervades everything, and then some. The universe as we know it is only a fraction of his being.

This hymn goes on to describe how the universe was created from the sacrifice of this cosmic Purusha — the sun from his eye, the moon from his mind, the sky from his head, the earth from his feet. It is one of the most influential texts in all of Vedic cosmology.

The Purusha Sukta (Rigveda 10.90) is one of the late hymns of the Rigveda and is recited in many Vaishnava rituals, especially during Abhisheka of Vishnu. It is also chanted at the installation of deities in temples.

The Purusha Sukta is one of the foundational texts for Vishishtadvaita Vedanta (the philosophy of Ramanuja), which sees the world as the body of the divine Purusha — not an illusion, but a real expression of Brahman.

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