purusha

English

Alternative forms

• purusa

Etymology

Borrowed from Sanskrit पुरुष (puruṣa).

Noun

purusha (plural purushas)

1. (Hinduism) In early Vedas, a cosmic man whose sacrifice by the gods created all life.
2. (Hinduism) In the Upanishad, an abstract essence of self, spirit, and the Universal Principle that is eternal, without form and all-pervasive, distinguished from the mutable material world.