Vedic · वैदिकSukta (hymn)

Purusha Sukta — opening verse

The thousand-headed Purusha — the first verse of the Purusha Sukta, Rigveda 10.90.1.

Rigveda 10.90.1edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

सहस्रशीर्षा पुरुषः सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात् । स भूमिं विश्वतो वृत्वात्यतिष्ठद्दशाङ्गुलम् ॥

sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt sa bhūmiṃ viśvato vṛtvātyatiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam

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Meaning

The Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. Encompassing the earth on every side, he stood beyond it by ten fingers.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

Context

Recited in temple worship as part of the sixteen-step puja. 'A thousand' here means uncountable rather than a literal number. The final phrase — daśāṅgulam, 'by ten fingers' — has been debated by commentators for centuries and no single reading is settled.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda: Anushtubh
devata: Purusha

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Avahana (invocation)Snana (bathing)

Classified as Vedic — From the Vedic corpus — Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka or Upanishad. Carries a rishi, a metre, and accent marking. Basis for this classification.

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