The Man hath a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.
Encompassing the earth on every side, he reached beyond it ten finger-breadths.

This Man alone is all the world—
both that which hath come to be and that which yet shall be.
He is the lord of deathless life, who through the food of this world, ascendeth beyond.

Such is the greatness of the Man—but greater still is he.
One fourth of him is all that liveth; three fourths abide above, undying in the heavens.

With his three parts he climbed aloft; the fourth part tarried here once more.
From thence he strode abroad, where things that eat and things that eat not dwell.

From him was Virāj brought forth, and from Virāj again the Man was born.
When he was born, he stretched beyond the earth, both behind and before.

When the gods made sacrifice with the Man as their gift, then spring was their melted butter, summer the firewood, autumn the offering laid down.

Upon the sacred grass they hallowed that firstborn Man; with him the gods gave sacrifice, the Sādhyas too, and seers of eld.

From that full offering the curdled fat was drawn— and it became the beasts: the ones of air, the wild, and those that dwell with men.

From that same rite, when wholly offered, were the hymns and chants brought forth; the measures rose from it, and the sacred words of power were born.

From it came horses, and all four-footed beasts that bear teeth in both jaws; from it were kine begotten, and goats and sheep likewise.

When they divided the Man, how many were the parts they made?
What was his mouth? what his two arms? what are named his thighs, his feet?

His mouth became the brahmin; his arms were made the lordly might; his thighs the free-born folk; from his feet the servant sprang.

From his mind came the moon, from his eye the shining sun; from his mouth were Indra and Agni born, and from his breath came the Wind.

Out of his navel sprang the mid-air; from his head the heavens unfolded; from his feet the earth was laid, and from his ears the quarters of the world. Thus were the worlds ordained.

Seven were the enclosing rods, and thrice seven the kindling sticks, when the gods, widening the rite, bound the Man as their beast for slaying.

With sacrifice the gods made sacrifice unto themselves—this was the ancient ground.
And its might was lifted up to the arch of heaven, where the gods of old and the Sādhyas abide.