Purusha Sukta

by Dr. R. L. Kashyap

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We are happy to present to the readers the second edition of the book, 'Purusha Sukta' by the eminent scholar Veda Kamala Professor S.K. Ramachandra Rao. Clearly the Purusha Sukta is the most well-known hymn in all the Vedas. But its deep meaning has not been explained in some detail anywhere using the traditional sources. In his preface to the first edition, he states that 'the idea of the Purusha has been explained in some detail and the enigmatic concept of Purusha-medha has also been considered in its proper perspective. It is hoped that by presenting this traditional interpretation, many of the misconception will be removed.'

The author's great contribution is to give excerpts from the Veda books such as the massive Shatapatha Brahmana, Taittiriya Aranyaka, Taittiriya Brahmana and other Upanishad and Brahmana books. The concept of Purusha has been discussed in some detail by all the major Upanishads, and this fact is not widely known.

This book contains many of the relevant excerpts and their translation. Another great contribution is the handling of the topic of Creation and Prajapati. We are not concerned here with the simplistic views of these topics in the Purana. But the Brahmana and Aranyaka books throw a wealth of light on this topic. We are immensely grateful to Professor S.K. Ramachandra Rao for making all this knowledge accessible to a wider audience. He gives the Sanskrit quotations in Devanagari or Roman script, and also their translations.

It is worthwhile emphasizing that the material found in this book is not easily available elsewhere. Professor Rao has refrained from explaining topics which can be found elsewhere.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Mantras with Explanations
• Epilogue

About the Author:

Dr. R.L. Kashyap is Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana in USA. He had his masters degree form Indian Institute of science, Bangalore and obtained Ph.D. form Harvard University. He is the recipient of many international awards. He has authored more than 350 research papers. He has guided more than 50 Ph.D. Scholars. He has written extensively on Veda. He has given the word-meaning of all the verses from the first 121 suktas of Rig Veda. He has to his credit six major books on the Veda. He is the Honorary Director of Sri Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic culture, Bangalore.