Brahmins: The Origins of India’s Priestly Caste

As an ancient Indian hymn proclaims, at the beginning of all things there was one singular being. The hymn calls him Purusha, and he encompasses all that there is:

Thousand-headed is Purusha, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed. He covered the earth on all sides and stood above it the space of ten fingers.
Purusha alone is all this, what has been and what is to be, and he is the lord of the immortals, who grow further by means of food.

To create the world, the hymn continues, the gods (somewhat paradoxically) conducted a sacrifice of Purusha. From his body emerged its essential elements – the moon from his mind, the sun from his eyes, the wind from his breath – and, so too, came humans:

When they portioned out Purusha, in how many ways did they distribute him? What is his mouth called, what his arms, what his thighs, what are his feet called?
His mouth was the Brahmin, his arms were made the Rajanya, what was his thighs was made the Vaishya, from his feet the Shudra was born.