Purusha(Self ):A Study
The word puruṣa has a variety of meanings ranging from man (male), human being, person, and embodied immortal self to presiding deity, creator, and highest, transcendent being. In contrast to other terms used for “immortal self” (such as ātman ) or cause of creation (such as brahman ), the term puruṣa is less abstract and connected to notions of corporeality and personhood as well as of form (rūpa) and measurement. The term is used already in vedic and upanishadic literature and gained particular importance in theological contexts of Vaiṣṇava traditions as well as in Sāṃkhya philosophy. In many instances puruṣa (in vedic literature also pūruṣa) is used for man, for instance when dealing with “manliness” (pauruṣa) in epic literature. The gender connotation is also corroborated by the close connection to the word puṃs (male). Although the word puruṣa carries this connotation of maleness and is used when discussing “manliness” (pauruṣeyatva, pauruṣa; e.g. MBh. 5.132.38; 5.157.7), it is regularly used for referring to “human beings” in general (as is the case with the English “man”) and similar to the Sanskrit nouns mānuṣa or nara (“man”). While feminine forms are used for the latter terms, this is rarely done in case of puruṣa. In the sense of “human,” the word puruṣa is used, for instance, in the compounds puruṣārtha, “the goals of man,” which refers in Hinduism to the (usually) four aims a human being or person should achieve in life. Various etymological explanations of the word are given in the Indian tradition. Yāska in the Nirukta (2.1.3) suggests two based on the Sanskrit feminine noun pur, “town,” “fort” (puri ṣādaḥ [sit or dwell in a fort] or puri śaya [lies in a fort/town]), and another that is derived from the verbal root pṛ-, “to fill” (the puruṣa being the one who fills or completes [pūrayati] the body).
The origins of sacrifice are in the famous puruṣa hymn (Puruṣasūkta; ṚV. 10.90) connected to the primordial dismemberment of puruṣa (“man”), the foundation of creation and first sacrificial victim. It describes the creation of the ritually and socially ordered world through the performance of the first sacrifice. The gods sacrificed the puruṣa, the “primordial body,” by dismembering its visible quarter, while the other three quarters extend beyond the world. This body represents the totality of the cosmic elements, which is indicated by multiple body parts signifying the wholeness of the cause of creation:
"The Man has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. He pervaded the earth on all sides and extended beyond it as far as ten fingers ... All creatures are a quarter of him; three quarters are what is in heaven ... From him Virāj was born, and from Virāj came the Man" (ṚV. 10.90.1, 3; trans. Doniger, 1981, 30f.).
It is told that the body parts became the different elements of the cosmos (his eyes became the sun, his mind the moon, etc.). This “biomorphic” or “organic” model of society became most influential in providing a cosmological justification of the four-tiered caste system consisting of the head (Brāhmaṇa/Brahman), arms (Kṣatriya), thighs (Vaiśya), and feet (Śūdra). All members of society are viewed as necessary parts of an organism that is only complete when all these groups function as the “limbs” of a body. The body of society and cosmos is created by re-membering the parts of the puruṣa in reuniting the separated groups as parts of the ritual order. This reflects the actual ritual practice of dismembering the body of a sacrificial victim in a way that allows for its being re-membered, that is, for keeping its integrity as a whole and thus for its being reembodied in a heavenly, ancestral realm (see Malamoud, 1996). The sacrificial cosmology described in this hymn is thus intimately connected to the world of man, as J. Heesterman points out: “[T]he puruṣa is not just a mythic figure. The word simply means ‘man’” and therefore the hymn also deals with the “riddle” of his life and death (Heesterman, 1987, 92). The completeness of the puruṣa also makes him the model of the sacrifice, and he is even equated with it. His limbs and the organic collaboration among them provide the model for the cooperative relationships that govern sacrifice too. The proportions of his body provide the basis for measuring the sacrifice, as stated in Śatapathabrāhmaṇa: “[F]or the sacrifice being a man, it is by means of him that everything is measured here” (ŚBr. 10.2.1.2; trans. Eggeling, vol. IV, 1963, 300; see also 1.3.2.1). The idea of measurement remains important in later Hindu traditions as well (see below). This corroborates the close connection of the term puruṣa with the corporeality and concreteness of an empirical person. This is also the topic of a hymn in the Atharvaveda (10.2) that deals with the origin and nature of puruṣa in a series of questions:
"Who and how many were those gods who fastened the chest of Pūruṣa and neck together? ... Who gave him visible form and shape? Who gave him magnitude and name? Who gave him notion, consciousness?" (AV. 10.2.4, 12; trans. Whitney, 1905).
In a similar vein, the word puruṣa is also frequently used in medical literature when referring to the person and the human body.
The following passage in the Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad is indicative of the transition to the new conceptual framework. While it still draws on the notion of the original body of the creator, it emphasizes the creative impact of a process of individuation and self-awareness that takes place in the first being that is “shaped like a man” (puruṣavidha). This process results in the creation of the first person, who is called puruṣa, for which an etymology is given as well:
"In the beginning this world was just a single body shaped like a man. He looked around and saw nothing but himself. The first thing he said was 'Here I am' and from that the name 'I' came into being. Therefore, even today when you call someone, he first says: 'It’s I' and then states whatever other name he may have. That first being received the name 'man'” (puruṣa), because ahead (pūrva) of all this he burnt up (uṣ) all evils. When someone knows this, he burns up anyone who may try to get ahead of him" (BĀU. 1.4.1; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 34).
This person comprises both sexes and thus represents a state before the appearance of the gender division and sexual procreation: "Now he was as large as a man and a woman in close embrace. So he split his body into two, giving rise to husband and wife ... He copulated with her, and from their union human beings were born" (BĀU. 1.4.1; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 35). This passage demonstrates that the androgynous body of puruṣa, which signifies original completeness, is regarded as the basis of the gendered structure of the created world. The construction of gender based on procreational complementarity is implied in the primordial, united body that exists before creation. This is also reflected in the Puruṣasūkta, when it is told that he produced a female entity (called virāj), which then again gave birth to him. Such gendered structure applies in many instances when the overarching unity of the creative principle is designated with a word that is a common word for man. This can be noticed already in the Puruṣasūkta and other instances, in which cosmological or processes of embodiment are described by drawing on models of procreation (e.g. BhG. 7.6ff., 14.4.).
The distinction between a transcendent and immanent puruṣa becomes increasingly prominent in texts that explain creation as a process of emanation. The cosmos is described as the body of the creative cause, and the creator is regarded as embodied in creation. In this connection puruṣa is described as the “immortal person” present in the world as its “inner self” or “seer,” as the one “who abides in the heart.” In the Muṇḍakopaniṣad, the puruṣa as cosmic creator is said to be the “inner self of all beings” (sarvabhūtāntarātman; MuU. 2.1.4). The idea of puruṣa as the “inner consciousness” is also expressed in the etymology of the word based on pur, “town, fort” (see above), which refers in this case to the body: “This very Person (puruṣa) is the fort-dweller (puriśaya) in all forts” (BĀU. 2.5.18; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 73; see also MBh. 12.294.37).
The notion of a “divine,” “highest” puruṣa is further elaborated in the Upaniṣads and in the Mahābhārata when it is placed at the top of a hierarchy of constituents of existence that also demarcate cosmic elements. Envisioning the transcendent puruṣa is now connected to liberation and immortality: "Higher than the senses is the mind, higher than the mind is the essence (sattva); higher than the essence is the immense self; higher than the immense in the unmanifest. Higher than the unmanifest is the Person (puruṣa), pervading all and without marks. Knowing him, a man is freed, and attains immortality" (KaṭhU. 6.7–8; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 401).
Specific methods for reaching this realm are recommended in other texts. In the Bhagavadgītā , for instance, the “highest puruṣa, the divine” (paramaṃ puruṣaṃ divyam; BhG. 8.8) is praised as the goal one should aim to obtain in the hour of death through yogic concentration and devotion: "'Poet of old, the Ruler, more minute than an atom, the Ordainer of all, of form unthinkable, of the colour of the sun beyond darkness' – he who may thus recall him with unmoving mind at the hour of death, being equipped with devotion (bhakti) and the power of yoga (yogabala), having pushed his breath between his eye-brows, he reaches this highest puruṣa, the divine" (BhG. 8.9–10; see Malinar, 2007, 137ff.; see also ŚvetU. 3.8–9).
In consequence of this hierarchization, the manifestation of a “cosmic body” is made a stage in the emanation of cosmos that is distinguished from the “highest” principle, but yet identified with him as one of its highest manifestations. The “cosmic body” represents the original plenitude and unity of the world before the multitude of beings is created. This is expressed in the Anugītā of the Mahābhārata as follows: "Having hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads and mouths on every side, and ears everywhere he exists pervading the universe. This puruṣa, whose radiance is shining brilliantly, abides in the heart of every being" (MBh. 14.40.4–5; see also MBh. 14.19.45).
The light that shines in a transcendent realm of immortality is also present in the body as the light of consciousness that needs to be recognized in order to gain liberation. While the idea of the puruṣa as residing in the heart of all beings is an upanishadic innovation, the text draws on the old imagery of multiple body parts. The multiple body parts remain a characteristic feature of puruṣa as creator, as pointed out by D. Srinivasan: "The entire Brāhmaṇic tradition – Vedas and epic – unites in designating the form of the creator god as a gigantic Male radiating with the total number of bodily parts on this exterior and containing, in his interior, the material forms to inhabit the worlds" (Srinivasan, 1997, 134–135). In chapter 11 of the Bhagavadgītā, for instance, the unity of the world is represented as the multiplicity of the god Kṛṣṇa’s form as cosmic sovereign.
The hierarchy of elements with puruṣa placed on top as the “highest” realm of nonreturn and salvation is further elaborated in different theological frameworks as well as in Sāṃkhya philosophy. Both these developments are interconnected since the Sāṃkhya model of cosmology is accepted with modification in many theological schools of Hinduism.
The importance of the terms puruṣa and puruṣottama in Vaiṣṇaiva and Kṛṣṇaite traditions does not mean that the puruṣa concept does not play any role in Śaiva traditions. Not only is Śiva referred to as puruṣa when described as the highest god (for instance in the Śvetāśvarataropaniṣad), but also in tantric Śaiva traditions, one of his five aspects is called tatpuruṣa. According to the Śaiva Āgamas this is the god’s face in the east, which signifies his presence as the pacified, inner self (see Filliozat, 2007).
The creation of the world and individual bodies (sarga) is explained as the result of an ontological error of puruṣa about its true identity. Creation starts because the puruṣa, although devoid of any activity, mistakes it as being active and full of creative potential when it becomes connected to the second eternal ontological principle, prakṛti, that is, self-active nature and material matrix. Both principles are declared as being uncaused and independent of any other being. With respect to the attributes that are used in defining them, they are similar to as well as different from each other (see SāṃK. 10–11). While puruṣa is self-conscious (cetana), plural (aneka), individual (asāmānya), and so forth, prakṛti is just the opposite. Yet they are similar in that they both are uncaused (ahetumat), autonomous (svatantra), eternal (nitya), and so forth (Yamaguchi, 1981).
Once these two principles are connected to each other (saṃyoga), prakṛti starts producing a body for the conscious person, the “knower.” The creation of an individual body is in many Sāṃkhya texts blended with the creation of the whole cosmos. The template for the creation and constitution of visible bodies consists in a set of 23 non-eternal and caused tattvas, three cognitive faculties, ten senses, five subtle element matrices, and five gross elements. These tattvas form together different bodies according to 14 different species (jāti), such as eight classes of gods, one species of humans, and five species of animals and plants. The body that serves the purposes of creation best is the human body since the cognitive faculties are most developed (when compared with animals, for instance) – a fact that allows humans to obtain liberation, which is postulated as one of the reasons for creation. Cosmology is thus explained by drawing on a teleological argument: the created world and the individual bodies exist because they serve a purpose (artha) that is the reason for the connection of the two principles. Creation has a double purpose for the puruṣa: experience of the world (darśana) followed by liberation from it (kaivalya).
The origin of the vāstupuruṣa (called vāstunara in the text) is related in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā (6th cent. CE), one of the oldest texts dealing with this topic, in the following mythic account:
"There was a being that by his body obstructed the earth and sky; the being was forcibly seized by the immortals, who felled him, head-down. And wherever a god held it, there that god became established; the Creator ordained that the House Man (vāstunara) was to consist of those immortals" (BṛhSa. 53.2–3; trans. Bhatt, 1981–1982).
This makes the “House Man” the genius loci who governs the site with the gods forming the parts of his body. Therefore the actual construction work is preceded by the worship of the deities assembles as the maṇḍala (vāstupūjā). The paradigm of the body of man also applies to the measurement of the main image in the central shrine of a temple. The height, width, and so on are measured by the forearm, hand, and digits of either patron (yajamāna) or main sculptor (sthāpati). Puruṣa, being measured and providing measure, is thus in many ways connected with the origin of form (Bäumer, 1982) and thus with the corporeal dimensions of existence, individual and cosmic.
Puruṣa and Sacrifice
The notion of puruṣa occupies an important place in ritual texts and cosmological speculations in vedic literature and is often connected with the idea and performance of vedic sacrifice ( yajña ). In this connection, the term may refer to both the sacrificer or patron of the sacrifice (yajamāna) and the sacrificial victim. On the one hand, this means that a puruṣa is the vedic sacrificer par excellence, who is initiated in the vedic tradition. On the other hand, the sacrifice is the arena that ensures the sacrificer’s well-being and is concerned with the paradox of “gaining life from destroying life” (Heesterman, 1993, 34). Since the sacrificer’s life and prosperity are at the center of the ritual, ideally he should be the sacrificial victim who offers himself in order to achieve his goals, and the sacrifice should be a self-sacrifice (Heesterman, 1987). Frequently it is pointed out in vedic texts that the actual sacrificial offerings are substitutes of the sacrificer. This explains why, according to Śatapathabrāhmaṇa (6.2.1.18), a man (puruṣa) is declared to be the preferred sacrificial victim as he would substitute the sacrificer best: “a man (puruṣa) should be sacrificed first, for man is the first of the sacrificial animals (paśu).” However, he can be substituted by a horse, ox, sheep, or goat (ŚBr. 1.2.3.6). Several texts describe or refer to the “sacrifice of a man” (puruṣamedha; ŚBr. 13.6; see also VādŚS., and the story of Śunaḥśepa). Whether this points to the actual practice of human sacrifice has been much debated. Recent studies are critical of the widespread view that such references should be taken symbolically and point out that there is enough evidence for practices of human sacrifice in India (see Parpola, 2007; Bakker, 2007).The origins of sacrifice are in the famous puruṣa hymn (Puruṣasūkta; ṚV. 10.90) connected to the primordial dismemberment of puruṣa (“man”), the foundation of creation and first sacrificial victim. It describes the creation of the ritually and socially ordered world through the performance of the first sacrifice. The gods sacrificed the puruṣa, the “primordial body,” by dismembering its visible quarter, while the other three quarters extend beyond the world. This body represents the totality of the cosmic elements, which is indicated by multiple body parts signifying the wholeness of the cause of creation:
"The Man has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. He pervaded the earth on all sides and extended beyond it as far as ten fingers ... All creatures are a quarter of him; three quarters are what is in heaven ... From him Virāj was born, and from Virāj came the Man" (ṚV. 10.90.1, 3; trans. Doniger, 1981, 30f.).
It is told that the body parts became the different elements of the cosmos (his eyes became the sun, his mind the moon, etc.). This “biomorphic” or “organic” model of society became most influential in providing a cosmological justification of the four-tiered caste system consisting of the head (Brāhmaṇa/Brahman), arms (Kṣatriya), thighs (Vaiśya), and feet (Śūdra). All members of society are viewed as necessary parts of an organism that is only complete when all these groups function as the “limbs” of a body. The body of society and cosmos is created by re-membering the parts of the puruṣa in reuniting the separated groups as parts of the ritual order. This reflects the actual ritual practice of dismembering the body of a sacrificial victim in a way that allows for its being re-membered, that is, for keeping its integrity as a whole and thus for its being reembodied in a heavenly, ancestral realm (see Malamoud, 1996). The sacrificial cosmology described in this hymn is thus intimately connected to the world of man, as J. Heesterman points out: “[T]he puruṣa is not just a mythic figure. The word simply means ‘man’” and therefore the hymn also deals with the “riddle” of his life and death (Heesterman, 1987, 92). The completeness of the puruṣa also makes him the model of the sacrifice, and he is even equated with it. His limbs and the organic collaboration among them provide the model for the cooperative relationships that govern sacrifice too. The proportions of his body provide the basis for measuring the sacrifice, as stated in Śatapathabrāhmaṇa: “[F]or the sacrifice being a man, it is by means of him that everything is measured here” (ŚBr. 10.2.1.2; trans. Eggeling, vol. IV, 1963, 300; see also 1.3.2.1). The idea of measurement remains important in later Hindu traditions as well (see below). This corroborates the close connection of the term puruṣa with the corporeality and concreteness of an empirical person. This is also the topic of a hymn in the Atharvaveda (10.2) that deals with the origin and nature of puruṣa in a series of questions:
"Who and how many were those gods who fastened the chest of Pūruṣa and neck together? ... Who gave him visible form and shape? Who gave him magnitude and name? Who gave him notion, consciousness?" (AV. 10.2.4, 12; trans. Whitney, 1905).
In a similar vein, the word puruṣa is also frequently used in medical literature when referring to the person and the human body.
Divine and Embodied Puruṣa
The idea expressed in the Puruṣasūkta that the created world is the body or an embodiment of the cause of creation remains influential in later texts even when it is no longer explicitly connected to sacrificial dismemberment. Rather, cosmogony becomes the “prototype of somatogony” (van Buitenen, 1964, 108) and is turned into the template for the creation of individual bodies. While the “cosmic body” of the creator contains the totality of all bodies, the individual body is interpreted as a specification and limited manifestation of that totality (identity of macrocosm and microcosm). This development is connected with the emergence of the concept of a first, single, and eternal principle in the Upaniṣads. This first being is regarded as the source and cause (material, instrumental, etc.) of the universe. This highest principle is rather abstractly described as “true being” (sat), “consciousness” (cit), the one (eka) that is the “whole” (sarva), and so forth. The terminology for designating this entity is fluid as it is called variously brahman, (mahat) ātman, or puruṣa. There is indeed some overlap between these terms in the Upaniṣads with puruṣa sharing aspects of both brahman (as cosmic cause) and ātman (embodied immortal self). G.C. Tripathi points out that the word puruṣa is used more frequently in the Upaniṣads than the other two terms, which suggest that it is the older concept (Tripathi, 1978, 32f.).The following passage in the Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad is indicative of the transition to the new conceptual framework. While it still draws on the notion of the original body of the creator, it emphasizes the creative impact of a process of individuation and self-awareness that takes place in the first being that is “shaped like a man” (puruṣavidha). This process results in the creation of the first person, who is called puruṣa, for which an etymology is given as well:
"In the beginning this world was just a single body shaped like a man. He looked around and saw nothing but himself. The first thing he said was 'Here I am' and from that the name 'I' came into being. Therefore, even today when you call someone, he first says: 'It’s I' and then states whatever other name he may have. That first being received the name 'man'” (puruṣa), because ahead (pūrva) of all this he burnt up (uṣ) all evils. When someone knows this, he burns up anyone who may try to get ahead of him" (BĀU. 1.4.1; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 34).
This person comprises both sexes and thus represents a state before the appearance of the gender division and sexual procreation: "Now he was as large as a man and a woman in close embrace. So he split his body into two, giving rise to husband and wife ... He copulated with her, and from their union human beings were born" (BĀU. 1.4.1; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 35). This passage demonstrates that the androgynous body of puruṣa, which signifies original completeness, is regarded as the basis of the gendered structure of the created world. The construction of gender based on procreational complementarity is implied in the primordial, united body that exists before creation. This is also reflected in the Puruṣasūkta, when it is told that he produced a female entity (called virāj), which then again gave birth to him. Such gendered structure applies in many instances when the overarching unity of the creative principle is designated with a word that is a common word for man. This can be noticed already in the Puruṣasūkta and other instances, in which cosmological or processes of embodiment are described by drawing on models of procreation (e.g. BhG. 7.6ff., 14.4.).
The distinction between a transcendent and immanent puruṣa becomes increasingly prominent in texts that explain creation as a process of emanation. The cosmos is described as the body of the creative cause, and the creator is regarded as embodied in creation. In this connection puruṣa is described as the “immortal person” present in the world as its “inner self” or “seer,” as the one “who abides in the heart.” In the Muṇḍakopaniṣad, the puruṣa as cosmic creator is said to be the “inner self of all beings” (sarvabhūtāntarātman; MuU. 2.1.4). The idea of puruṣa as the “inner consciousness” is also expressed in the etymology of the word based on pur, “town, fort” (see above), which refers in this case to the body: “This very Person (puruṣa) is the fort-dweller (puriśaya) in all forts” (BĀU. 2.5.18; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 73; see also MBh. 12.294.37).
The notion of a “divine,” “highest” puruṣa is further elaborated in the Upaniṣads and in the Mahābhārata when it is placed at the top of a hierarchy of constituents of existence that also demarcate cosmic elements. Envisioning the transcendent puruṣa is now connected to liberation and immortality: "Higher than the senses is the mind, higher than the mind is the essence (sattva); higher than the essence is the immense self; higher than the immense in the unmanifest. Higher than the unmanifest is the Person (puruṣa), pervading all and without marks. Knowing him, a man is freed, and attains immortality" (KaṭhU. 6.7–8; trans. Olivelle, 1998, 401).
Specific methods for reaching this realm are recommended in other texts. In the Bhagavadgītā , for instance, the “highest puruṣa, the divine” (paramaṃ puruṣaṃ divyam; BhG. 8.8) is praised as the goal one should aim to obtain in the hour of death through yogic concentration and devotion: "'Poet of old, the Ruler, more minute than an atom, the Ordainer of all, of form unthinkable, of the colour of the sun beyond darkness' – he who may thus recall him with unmoving mind at the hour of death, being equipped with devotion (bhakti) and the power of yoga (yogabala), having pushed his breath between his eye-brows, he reaches this highest puruṣa, the divine" (BhG. 8.9–10; see Malinar, 2007, 137ff.; see also ŚvetU. 3.8–9).
In consequence of this hierarchization, the manifestation of a “cosmic body” is made a stage in the emanation of cosmos that is distinguished from the “highest” principle, but yet identified with him as one of its highest manifestations. The “cosmic body” represents the original plenitude and unity of the world before the multitude of beings is created. This is expressed in the Anugītā of the Mahābhārata as follows: "Having hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads and mouths on every side, and ears everywhere he exists pervading the universe. This puruṣa, whose radiance is shining brilliantly, abides in the heart of every being" (MBh. 14.40.4–5; see also MBh. 14.19.45).
The light that shines in a transcendent realm of immortality is also present in the body as the light of consciousness that needs to be recognized in order to gain liberation. While the idea of the puruṣa as residing in the heart of all beings is an upanishadic innovation, the text draws on the old imagery of multiple body parts. The multiple body parts remain a characteristic feature of puruṣa as creator, as pointed out by D. Srinivasan: "The entire Brāhmaṇic tradition – Vedas and epic – unites in designating the form of the creator god as a gigantic Male radiating with the total number of bodily parts on this exterior and containing, in his interior, the material forms to inhabit the worlds" (Srinivasan, 1997, 134–135). In chapter 11 of the Bhagavadgītā, for instance, the unity of the world is represented as the multiplicity of the god Kṛṣṇa’s form as cosmic sovereign.
The hierarchy of elements with puruṣa placed on top as the “highest” realm of nonreturn and salvation is further elaborated in different theological frameworks as well as in Sāṃkhya philosophy. Both these developments are interconnected since the Sāṃkhya model of cosmology is accepted with modification in many theological schools of Hinduism.
Theological Interpretations: Puruṣottama
The different manifestations of the highest being and of the process of embodiment of an “immortal self” in a mortal body result in distinguishing among different puruṣas as well (a development that has parallels with the semantic development of the term ātman). In Bhagavadgītā 15.16–20, one finds the influential doctrine of the three puruṣas that demarcate different levels of existence:- -
- the “perishable” (kṣara) puruṣa, the mortal body or empirical person;
- -
- the “imperishable” (akṣara) puruṣa, the “immortal person” who resides in the body, but stands at the top of the elements (kūṭastha) and leaves the body upon death;
- -
- the “supreme” or “highest” puruṣa (Puruṣottama), the god Kṛṣṇa sustaining everything in the world.
The importance of the terms puruṣa and puruṣottama in Vaiṣṇaiva and Kṛṣṇaite traditions does not mean that the puruṣa concept does not play any role in Śaiva traditions. Not only is Śiva referred to as puruṣa when described as the highest god (for instance in the Śvetāśvarataropaniṣad), but also in tantric Śaiva traditions, one of his five aspects is called tatpuruṣa. According to the Śaiva Āgamas this is the god’s face in the east, which signifies his presence as the pacified, inner self (see Filliozat, 2007).
Sāṃkhya Philosophy
Yet another interpretation of puruṣa as an entity separated from the visible world is given in Sāṃkhya philosophy. One of the main differences, when compared to the theological interpretations, is that the eternal, uncaused puruṣa is in Sāṃkhya not a single entity, but that there are many such eternal, liberated puruṣas. In theological frameworks, the highest god is often superimposed on the plurality of the puruṣas (often called jīva), who are then interpreted as particles of the highest god. This is sometimes referred to as “theistic” Sāṃkhya (earliest instances in BhG. 7, 13; MBh. 12.291.37). In nontheistic, “classical” Sāṃkhya, processes of cognition and experience as well as notions of liberating knowledge dominate in a philosophical framework that is concerned with explaining the embodiment as well as liberation of a multitude of puruṣas (also called jñas, “knowers”). Puruṣa is the first of a set of 25 cosmological and ontological principles (tattva) taught in Sāṃkhya in order to explain the structure of existence.The creation of the world and individual bodies (sarga) is explained as the result of an ontological error of puruṣa about its true identity. Creation starts because the puruṣa, although devoid of any activity, mistakes it as being active and full of creative potential when it becomes connected to the second eternal ontological principle, prakṛti, that is, self-active nature and material matrix. Both principles are declared as being uncaused and independent of any other being. With respect to the attributes that are used in defining them, they are similar to as well as different from each other (see SāṃK. 10–11). While puruṣa is self-conscious (cetana), plural (aneka), individual (asāmānya), and so forth, prakṛti is just the opposite. Yet they are similar in that they both are uncaused (ahetumat), autonomous (svatantra), eternal (nitya), and so forth (Yamaguchi, 1981).
Once these two principles are connected to each other (saṃyoga), prakṛti starts producing a body for the conscious person, the “knower.” The creation of an individual body is in many Sāṃkhya texts blended with the creation of the whole cosmos. The template for the creation and constitution of visible bodies consists in a set of 23 non-eternal and caused tattvas, three cognitive faculties, ten senses, five subtle element matrices, and five gross elements. These tattvas form together different bodies according to 14 different species (jāti), such as eight classes of gods, one species of humans, and five species of animals and plants. The body that serves the purposes of creation best is the human body since the cognitive faculties are most developed (when compared with animals, for instance) – a fact that allows humans to obtain liberation, which is postulated as one of the reasons for creation. Cosmology is thus explained by drawing on a teleological argument: the created world and the individual bodies exist because they serve a purpose (artha) that is the reason for the connection of the two principles. Creation has a double purpose for the puruṣa: experience of the world (darśana) followed by liberation from it (kaivalya).
Vāstupuruṣa
In vedic texts the puruṣa is said to be the body, which is the basis of the sacrifice. This notion remains influential in later Hindu traditions as well. The body of a puruṣa provides the basis for measuring sacrificial arenas, temple compounds, and icons to be worshipped in temple rituals. The ground plan of a temple is called vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala (diagram of the puruṣa of the dwelling; vāstuśāstra ) for which the human body provides the basic structure. This body is divided into a fixed number of squares, each square being occupied by a god, as explained in the manuals of architecture (śilpaśāstra) and the ritual texts of the different theological schools (see Kramrisch, vol.1, 1946, 21–97). In his discussion of a possible connection of this idea to practices of construction sacrifices, H. Bakker emphasizes the underlying concept of the vedic “cosmic” puruṣa: "The central idea is that underneath the Hindu temple lies a diagram, a maṇḍala, that embodies the cosmic Puruṣa and houses all divinities" (Bakker, 2007, 193).The origin of the vāstupuruṣa (called vāstunara in the text) is related in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā (6th cent. CE), one of the oldest texts dealing with this topic, in the following mythic account:
"There was a being that by his body obstructed the earth and sky; the being was forcibly seized by the immortals, who felled him, head-down. And wherever a god held it, there that god became established; the Creator ordained that the House Man (vāstunara) was to consist of those immortals" (BṛhSa. 53.2–3; trans. Bhatt, 1981–1982).
This makes the “House Man” the genius loci who governs the site with the gods forming the parts of his body. Therefore the actual construction work is preceded by the worship of the deities assembles as the maṇḍala (vāstupūjā). The paradigm of the body of man also applies to the measurement of the main image in the central shrine of a temple. The height, width, and so on are measured by the forearm, hand, and digits of either patron (yajamāna) or main sculptor (sthāpati). Puruṣa, being measured and providing measure, is thus in many ways connected with the origin of form (Bäumer, 1982) and thus with the corporeal dimensions of existence, individual and cosmic.
Comments
Post a Comment