The Hymn of the Man (Puruṣa Sūkta)
Rigveda X.90, the Puruṣa Sūkta, is a hymn of sixteen verses from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda. It tells how the gods offered the cosmic Man as the first sacrifice, and how from his body arose the animals, the Vedas themselves, the four human orders, the sun and moon, and the ordered worlds. It is among the most influential hymns of the Veda — the seed of a thousand later theologies of sacrifice and cosmic embodiment.
The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. The Man has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. Enveloping the earth on every side, he stood beyond it by the breadth of ten fingers.
2. The Man is this whole world — what has been and what is to come. He is lord of immortality also, which he grows beyond through food.
3. Such is his greatness — and the Man is greater still: a quarter of him is all beings; three quarters of him are the immortal in heaven.
4. With three quarters the Man rose upward; a quarter of him came to be here again. From there he strode out in every direction, toward what eats and what does not eat.
5. From him Virāj was born, and from Virāj the Man in turn. Once born, he reached beyond the earth, behind and before.
6. When the gods spread the sacrifice with the Man as the offering, spring was its melted butter, summer its firewood, autumn its oblation.
7. On the sacred grass they consecrated him as the sacrifice — the Man, born at the beginning. With him the gods sacrificed, and the Sādhyas, and the seers.
8. From that sacrifice, offered whole, the speckled butter was gathered. It made the animals of the air, of the forest, and of the village.
9. From that sacrifice, offered whole, the verses and the chants were born; the metres were born from it; from it the sacrificial formula was born.
10. From it horses were born, and all creatures with a double row of teeth; cows were born from it; from it were born goats and sheep.
11. When they divided the Man, into how many parts did they apportion him? What is his mouth called, what his two arms, what his thighs, what his feet?
12. The brahmin was his mouth; his two arms were made the warrior; his thighs became the commoner; from his feet the servant was born.
13. The moon was born from his mind; from his eye the sun was born; from his mouth came Indra and Agni; from his breath the wind was born.
14. From his navel came the mid-space; from his head the sky evolved; from his feet the earth, and from his ear the directions. Thus they fashioned the worlds.
15. Seven were his enclosing-sticks; three times seven the kindling-sticks were made, when the gods, spreading the sacrifice, bound the Man as the victim.
16. With the sacrifice the gods sacrificed to the sacrifice — these were the first ordinances. Those powers reached the vault of heaven, where the ancient Sādhyas are, the gods.
Translator's note: In verse 2 the final phrase (yad annenātirohati) is compressed and disputed — literally "which he grows beyond by food"; the rendering keeps its ambiguity. In verse 12 the four orders are given in plain English (brahmin, warrior, commoner, servant) for rājanya, vaiśya, and śūdra. Virāj in verse 5 is the shining female creative principle, left untranslated as a proper name.
Colophon
Rigveda X.90 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.90
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt |
sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛtvāty atiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam || 1 ||
puruṣa evedaṁ sarvaṁ yad bhūtaṁ yac ca bhavyam |
utāmṛtatvasyeśāno yad annenātirohati || 2 ||
etāvān asya mahimāto jyāyām̐ś ca pūruṣaḥ |
pādo 'sya viśvā bhūtāni tripād asyāmṛtaṁ divi || 3 ||
tripād ūrdhva ud ait puruṣaḥ pādo 'syehābhavat punaḥ |
tato viṣvaṅ vy akrāmat sāśanānaśane abhi || 4 ||
tasmād virāḻ ajāyata virājo adhi pūruṣaḥ |
sa jāto aty aricyata paścād bhūmim atho puraḥ || 5 ||
yat puruṣeṇa haviṣā devā yajñam atanvata |
vasanto asyāsīd ājyaṁ grīṣma idhmaḥ śarad dhaviḥ || 6 ||
taṁ yajñam barhiṣi praukṣan puruṣaṁ jātam agrataḥ |
tena devā ayajanta sādhyā ṛṣayaś ca ye || 7 ||
tasmād yajñāt sarvahutaḥ sambhṛtam pṛṣadājyam |
paśūn tām̐ś cakre vāyavyān āraṇyān grāmyāś ca ye || 8 ||
tasmād yajñāt sarvahuta ṛcaḥ sāmāni jajñire |
chandāṁsi jajñire tasmād yajus tasmād ajāyata || 9 ||
tasmād aśvā ajāyanta ye ke cobhayādataḥ |
gāvo ha jajñire tasmāt tasmāj jātā ajāvayaḥ || 10 ||
yat puruṣaṁ vy adadhuḥ katidhā vy akalpayan |
mukhaṁ kim asya kau bāhū kā ūrū pādā ucyete || 11 ||
brāhmaṇo 'sya mukham āsīd bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ |
ūrū tad asya yad vaiśyaḥ padbhyāṁ śūdro ajāyata || 12 ||
candramā manaso jātaś cakṣoḥ sūryo ajāyata |
mukhād indraś cāgniś ca prāṇād vāyur ajāyata || 13 ||
nābhyā āsīd antarikṣaṁ śīrṣṇo dyauḥ sam avartata |
padbhyām bhūmir diśaḥ śrotrāt tathā lokām̐ akalpayan || 14 ||
saptāsyāsan paridhayas triḥ sapta samidhaḥ kṛtāḥ |
devā yad yajñaṁ tanvānā abadhnan puruṣam paśum || 15 ||
yajñena yajñam ayajanta devās tāni dharmāṇi prathamāny āsan |
te ha nākam mahimānaḥ sacanta yatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥ || 16 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).