El cuerpo cósmico como metáfora del orden divino, natural y social: una interpretación del himno al Purusa (R.V. X, 90)

Abstract

The Ṛg Veda is the oldest literary work in India. It consists of a collection of 1028 religious hymns, ordered in 10 books, whose composition dates back to approximately 1500 B.C., with the arrival of the Indo-Europeans to the subcontinent. The Puruṣa hymn (R.V. X, 90) is a cosmogonic text: it explains the origin of the world from the sacrifice of a primordial human being; and also a cosmological text: it supports the divine, natural and social order. In this paper, an interpretation of this literary image of the body is proposed as a determining factor for the caste systems adopted by Hindu society.