[Advaita-l] Who is this Angustha Parimana Purusha?

Venkata sriram P venkatasriramp at yahoo.in
Sat Apr 2 03:27:07 CDT 2016


नमस्ते,

"Thumb" was one of the ancient measuring scales. "Palm" was also used. 

So, the height of one's body was measured in terms of one's thumb, in general 
(to be precise - the distance FROM the dark line in the middle of the thumb TO
the origin of the thumb).  

The त्रिषिखि ब्राह्मणोपनिषद् says:

देहमानं स्वाङ्गुलिभिः षण्णवत्यङ्गुलायतम् । प्राणः शरीरादधिको द्वादशाङ्गुलमानतः 

The measure of one's body is 96 times of the size of one's own thumb. 

Hence, अङ्गुष्ठ प्रमाण पुरुषः should be taken from this perspective rather than
splitting the meaning from metaphysical perspective.

श्रीरामकिंकरः 


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