Purusha
Purusha ( Sanskrit , m., पुरुष, puruṣa , "man, human being, humanity, person, original soul") is a central term in Indian mythology and Indian philosophy , especially in Samkhya philosophy. In this dualistic conception, Purusha (spirit, human being) stands in contrast to Prakriti (nature, primordial matter). According to a creation myth in Rigveda , Purusha is the primordial man, from whose body the world emerges in a self-sacrifice.
Purusha in Indian literature
The oldest evidence can be found in the Rigveda (RV.10.90), the so-called Purusha-Sukta, which also describes the origins of the castes. Purusha is a primordial individual from which the world and the varnas (boxes) arise. Purusha is described as having a thousand heads and a thousand feet. It completely covered the earth and even protruded beyond it. He is considered the ruler of immortality. It spread through self-generation. He released the Viraj (female principle of creation) and then gave birth to the world from her. The gods offer the Purusha born in this way as an offering. The verses and chants were created in this offering. The horses and cows were born. The mouth of Purusha became the Brahmins , the arms became the Kshatriyas , the thighs became the Vaishyas, and the feet became the Shudras . The moon was born from his spirit, the sun from his eyes. Indra and Agni came out of his mouth. The sky emerged from his head, the universe from his navel.
In the pre-classical, dualistic Samkhya philosophy, Purusha is the original soul, the eternal, metaphysical world spirit , which is immutable. Purusha is in contrast to Prakriti (nature), which is thought to be feminine , the world of phenomena. The primordial soul and primordial matter were compared as man and woman and their difference was derived from this opposition. Prakriti is the woman and therefore the creating and giving birth principle. Purusha is the man, his essence is to contemplate, to look and to know. Purusha and Prakriti are the two different principles to which the world is reduced.
In the classical system of Samkhya, the world is reduced to two eternal principles. These are the unconscious, active primordial nature (Prakriti) on the one hand and the multitude of spiritually conscious, individual spirit monads (Purusha) on the other. Since a multitude of individuals exist in the empirical world, the philosophy of Samkhya assumes an infinite number of spirit monads. The Purusha is essentially pure consciousness, an eternal subject that can never become an object. It delights in the play of unfolding prakriti.
In the Bhagavadgita , Purusha is both the cause of things in the world and the carrier of the unchangeable that is outside the world. In addition, a Purushottama is spoken of, which rules and spans heaven and earth and the world in between. So it says in the stanzas 15,16-15,18:
Two Purushas are in the world: The one became to the things,
the other as if on a rock always steadfastly insists.
But another is still greater, he is called the highest self, who
bears this whole tri-world as Lord rules and embraces it.
I am more than the changeable spirit. That is why
I am praised as the Most High in word and in writing .
In the monistic Vedanta philosophy, Purusha is identical with Atman (world soul) and therefore also with Brahman .
In the Shivaitic texts (e.g. Lingapurana ) Shiva is placed above Purusha and Prakriti as the highest being. Shiva's masculine aspect is identified with the Purusha and his feminine aspect with the Prakriti. Prakriti is understood as the basis of everything material and everything dynamic in the universe. The Prakriti is also regarded as his wife, the Purusha as his lingam . Iconographically Shiva is called Purusha, Uma-Maheshvara; Uma sitting on his left thigh is understood as Prakriti, i.e. father and mother of creation.
The word Purusha is also used in the compound terms Purushottama or Para-Purusha . It is a term here for the One Spirit, the Supreme Soul, the Divine Self, the Divine Person. It is above the changeable ( kshara ) and the unchangeable ( akshara ) (see section Bhagavadgita ). The Vastu-Purusha Mandala ( vastu, "earth on which there is building") is the representation of the cosmogonic order and a basic principle of Indian architecture .
Concepts of primitive man related to Purusha
The myth of Purusha, as it is described for the first time in the Rig Veda, has parallels to other Indo-European myths about the origins of the world . What all myths have in common is that the primordial beings, which symbolize the absolute primordial state of the universe, arise from a cosmic egg . Through the death of the primordial being, which always symbolizes non-duality , i.e. the union of complementary principles, the perceived world with its fundamental duality emerges, e.g. B. Sun (male) and moon (female) emerge from the eyes of the primordial being . In Cambodia and Vietnam there was a belief that Buddha created the world from the body of a giant called Banio. Its skull became heaven, its flesh became the earth, its bones became stones and mountains, and its hair became plants.
The Kalmyks know a prehistoric man Manzaschiri (name derived from the Bodhisattva Manjushri ). Out of his veins went the trees, out of his internal organs the fire, out of his flesh the earth, out of his bones the iron, out of his blood the water, out of his hair the grass, out of his eyes the sun and moon, out of his teeth those seven planets and the remaining stars emerged from its back. The Chinese world creator Pangu created the world out of himself at the end of his life. His breath became the wind, his voice the thunder, the left eye the sun, the right eye formed the moon, his blood yielded the rivers, his hair in turn plants, his saliva the rain and the vermin clinging to him humanity.
There is a distant resemblance to the giant Ymir in Norse mythology . The story Grímnismál contains cosmogony and describes how Ymir was killed so that his flesh made the earth, his bones the mountains, blood the water, his hair the trees, his brain the clouds and his skull the vault of heaven. Influences from Central Asia are possible. Another derivation relates the Nordic legend to the Slavic Book of Enoch , in which the eight primary substances are listed that make up Adam's body. The list, which has been handed down in several variants, mentions the most common: Earth becomes flesh, stones become bones, sea water makes blood, sun makes eyes, clouds become thoughts and the wind becomes Adam's breath. The origin of Adam's skull is missing here, which, as in the Indo-European myth and in the Vedic mythology of Purusha, can hardly have emerged from the vault of heaven.
literature
- Kanchana Natarajan: Gendering of Early Indian Philosophy: A Study of "Samkhyakarika". In: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 17; April 28 - May 4, 2001, pp. 1398-1401 +1403-1404
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Friedrich Geldner : Rig-Veda. The Sacred Knowledge of India. Volume II. 1923, p. 286
- ^ Helmuth von Glasenapp : The philosophy of the Indians. An introduction to their history and teachings. Kröner, Stuttgart 1949, p. 208
- ^ Robert Boxberger : Bhagavadgita. P. 87
- ↑ Uno Harva, p. 111; Pierre Grimal (ed.): Myths of the peoples . Fischer, Frankfurt 1977, Volume 2, p. 269
- ↑ Uno Harva : The religious ideas of the Altaic peoples . FF Communications N: o 125. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki 1938, pp. 111-114