1. Purusha Nârâyana desired, 'Would that I overpassed all beings! would that I alone were everything here (this universe)!' He beheld this five-days’ sacrificial performance, the Purushamedha, and took it 1, and performed offering therewith; and having performed offering therewith, he overpassed all beings, and became everything here. And, verily, he who, knowing this, performs the Purushamedha, or who even knows this, overpasses all beings, and becomes everything here.
2. For this (offering) there are twenty-three Dîkshâs, twelve Upasads, and five Sutyâs (Soma-days). This, then, being a forty-days’ (performance), including the Dîkshâs and Upasads, amounts to a Virâg 2, for the Virâg consists of forty syllables: [Vâg. S. XXXI, 5.] 'Thence 3 Virâg (f.) was born, and from out of Virâg the Pûrusha.'
4. On the Upavasatha 2 (day) there are eleven victims sacred to Agni and Soma: the performance for these is one and the same. There are eleven stakes,--the Trishtubh (verse) consists of eleven syllables, and the Trishtubh is a thunderbolt, and the Trishtubh is vigour: with the thunderbolt, with vigour, the Sacrificer thus from the first repels evil.
5. On the Sutyâ (days) there are the (Savanîya) victims of the set of eleven 3 (stakes),--the Trishtubh consists of eleven syllables, and the Trishtubh is a thunderbolt, and the Trishtubh is vigour: with the thunderbolt, with vigour, the Sacrificer thus from the first repels evil.
7. Now this Purushamedha is a five-days’ sacrificial performance--the sacrifice is fivefold, the victim is fivefold, and five seasons are a year: whatsoever of five kinds there is, either concerning the deity or the self (body), all that he thereby obtains.
8. The first day thereof is an Agnishtoma; then (follows) an Ukthya, then an Atirâtra, then an Ukthya, then an Agnishtoma: this (sacrifice) thus has light (gyotis 1) on both sides, and an Ukthya on both sides (of the central Atirâtra).
9. It is a five-days’ (sacrifice), like a barley-corn in the middle 2; for the Purushamedha is these worlds, and these worlds have light on both sides--through Agni (the sacrificial fire) on this side, and through Âditya (the Sun) on the other: therefore it has light on both sides. And the Ukthya is food, and the Atirâtra the body (self); and because there are these Ukthyas on both sides of the Atirâtra, therefore this body is surrounded by food. And that Atirâtra which is the largest of them is in. the middle, it is thereby that it (the body, or sacrifice) is like a barley-corn (yava) in the middle; and, verily,
11. Then as to the body 2. The first day is its feet, and the spring season also is its feet; and the second day is what is above the feet, and below the waist, and the summer season also is that (part) of it; and the central day is its waist, and the rainy and autumn seasons also are its waist; the fourth day is what is above the waist and below the head, and the winter season also is that (part) of it; and the fifth day is its head, and the dewy season also is its head:--thus these worlds, as well as the year and the (sacrificer's) self, pass into the Purushamedha for the obtainment and securing of everything, for, indeed, these worlds are everything, and the year is everything, and the self is everything, and the Purushamedha is everything.
403:1 That is, according to Harisvâmin, he brought its powers into play, and accomplished all his desires:--tatsâdhanâny upâpâdayat, tenâyam yaganena samîhitam sakalam sâdhitavân ity arthah.
403:2 The Virâg-verse consists of decasyllabic pâdas, the most common form of the verse being one of three pâdas (or thirty syllables), whilst here the one consisting of four pâdas is alluded to, and Virâg-verses of one and two pâdas likewise occur. There is also a parallel form of the Virâg-metre consisting of (usually three) hendeca-syllabic pâdas.
403:3 That is, from the Purusha; cf. Rig-v. S. X, 90, 5.
404:1 Harisvâmin supplies 'pûrve purushâh' (? former men, or the first seven purushâh, the seven Rishis).
404:2 That is, the day before the Soma-sacrifice.
404:3 See III, 7, 2, 1 seqq.
405:1 Viz. an Agnishtoma form of the Gyotishtoma order of sacrifice. Cf. part iv, p. 287, note 2.
405:2 That is, becoming larger towards the middle, inasmuch as the Ukthya is--as far as Stotras and Sastras, and cups of Soma are concerned--a larger sacrifice than the Agnishtoma; and the Atirâtra is the largest form of all.
406:1 It should be borne in mind here that the sacrifice (Pragâpati) is identical with the Sacrificer on the one hand, and with the year on the other.
406:2 Or, as to the self, viz. of Pragâpati (and the Sacrificer), which the sacrifice is supposed to reproduce.
