The Gayatri Mantra: Meaning, Origins and Recitation

The Gayatri mantra is a verse of the Rigveda (3.62.10) addressed to the sun god Savitr, asking that he inspire the thoughts of those who meditate on his radiance. Named after the poetic metre in which it is composed and traditionally attributed to the sage Vishvamitra, it is the most sacred and most widely recited of all Vedic verses: it is taught at the sacred-thread initiation, repeated in the daily twilight worship and honoured as a goddess, Gayatri, "the mother of the Vedas."

The Text and Meaning of the Gayatri Mantra§

In its usual liturgical form the Gayatri reads, in transliteration:

Om bhur bhuvah svah. Tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.

The first line, which is not part of the Rigvedic verse, contains the sacred syllable Om and the three vyahritis, "utterances," which name the three worlds: earth (bhur), the atmosphere (bhuvah) and heaven (svah). The verse itself can be glossed word by word:

• tat savitur varenyam — "that desirable [splendour] of Savitr"
• bhargo devasya dhimahi — "the radiance of the god, may we meditate upon" (or "may we receive")
• dhiyo yo nah prachodayat — "who shall impel our thoughts" (or "our prayers, our visions")

A plain rendering is: "May we meditate on that excellent radiance of the god Savitr, that he may inspire our thoughts." The Sanskrit dhi, here translated "thought," also means poetic insight and the inspired vision of the Vedic poets, so the prayer asks both for understanding in a general sense and for the gift of sacred speech. Later commentators read bhargas, "radiance," as the supreme light of Brahman, the absolute, and the verse as a prayer for spiritual awakening.

Origins in the Rigveda: Savitr, Vishvamitra and the Gayatri Metre§

The verse belongs to the third book of the Rigveda, one of the "family books" associated with particular lineages of poet-priests; this one is attributed to the line of Vishvamitra, the sage famous in later legend for his rivalry with Vasishtha. Its date cannot be fixed precisely; the core of the Rigveda is usually placed roughly between 1500 and 1000 BCE, though all such dates are debated. The collection and its transmission are described in The Vedas and Upanishads.

Savitr, "the impeller" or "the vivifier," is a solar god who sets all creatures in motion at dawn and puts them to rest at dusk. He is closely related to Surya, the sun, but represents especially the sun's power to rouse and to inspire. Because the verse is addressed to him, it is also called the Savitri.

The name Gayatri comes from the metre: three lines of eight syllables each, twenty-four in all (the first line counts eight only if varenyam is read with four syllables, as was probably the ancient pronunciation). The gayatri metre was associated with Agni, the fire god, and with the Brahmin class, and was regarded in Vedic speculation as the first and most potent of the metres. In time the metre's name came to refer to this one verse above all others.

The Gayatri in Vedic and Brahmanical Ritual§

Upanayana: The Second Birth§

The Gayatri is the mantra imparted at the upanayana, the sacred-thread initiation that traditionally admitted boys of the three "twice-born" classes to Vedic study. The teacher whispers the verse to the pupil, and the rite was understood as a second birth in which the Gayatri is the mother and the teacher the father. The law book of Manu treats the Savitri, with Om and the three utterances, as the gateway to the Veda and praises its daily repetition; see The Manusmriti.

Sandhya: The Twilight Worship§

In the sandhyavandana, the worship of the "junctions" of the day, initiated men recite the Gayatri at dawn, midday and dusk, while offering water to the sun and controlling the breath. Traditional manuals recommend repeating it a fixed number of times, commonly 108, counted on a rosary or the joints of the fingers, a practice called japa. The sandhya is described within the wider round of domestic worship in Hindu Temples, Rituals and Festivals.

Speculation in the Upanishads§

Already in the late Vedic period the verse attracted speculation. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (5.14) analyses the Gayatri's syllables and feet, correlating them with the three worlds, the three Vedas and the breath, and the Chandogya Upanishad (3.12) declares that the Gayatri is "all this, whatever exists." Such passages show how the verse was already treated as a condensed form of the whole Veda.

The great commentator Sayana, who worked at the court of Vijayanagara in the fourteenth century, explained the verse both in its ritual sense, as a prayer to the sun, and in a philosophical sense, identifying the radiance of Savitr with the supreme Brahman that illuminates the intellect. Medieval ritual manuals then elaborated the recitation with preliminary breath control, the assignment of syllables to parts of the body (nyasa) and meditation on the form of the deity, so that the brief verse became the centre of a complete daily discipline.

Gayatri the Goddess§

From about the medieval period the mantra was personified as a goddess, Gayatri, honoured as Vedamata, "mother of the Vedas." Her images typically show her with five faces and ten arms, seated on a lotus and sometimes accompanied by a swan; the five faces are linked with the five elements or the five vital breaths. In some Puranic stories she is a consort of the creator god Brahma; at Pushkar in Rajasthan, home of one of the few temples of Brahma, a well-known legend tells how Brahma married Gayatri when his first wife Savitri was late for a sacrifice. Temples of the goddess Gayatri, including the large centres of modern Gayatri movements, make the mantra itself an object of worship.

Many "Gayatris" for other deities were modelled on the original pattern, keeping its structure but changing the names: Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesha and many other deities have their own Gayatri verses, some of them already found in late Vedic texts. Their use in temple and domestic worship is described in Ganesha and Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

Who May Recite the Gayatri? Restriction and Opening§

For most of its history the Gayatri was an esoteric verse. Brahmanical law restricted Vedic recitation to initiated men of the three upper classes, and women and Shudras were excluded from learning the Veda; the mantra was therefore whispered, not broadcast. There were always exceptions and debates, and the Buddha himself, according to the Pali Sutta Nipata, called the Savitri the foremost of metres, showing that its fame extended beyond Brahmin circles.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reformers set out to open the mantra to all. Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Arya Samaj (founded 1875) taught the Gayatri to women and men of every class as the heart of Vedic religion. In the twentieth century Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya founded the Gayatri Pariwar movement, with centres at Mathura and later at Shantikunj in Haridwar, which promoted the mantra and fire rituals to millions regardless of caste or gender. Many modern gurus did the same, and recordings of sung versions made the Gayatri widely familiar.

Some traditionalists still hold that the mantra should be received through initiation and recited with the proper ritual purity, while others regard it as a universal prayer for enlightenment. This tension reflects wider debates over the authority of tradition in modern Hinduism, outlined in What Is Hinduism?.

Frequently asked questions§

What does the Gayatri mantra mean?§

It is a prayer to Savitr, the divine power of the sun: "May we meditate on that excellent radiance of the god Savitr, that he may inspire our thoughts." Later interpreters read it as a prayer to the supreme light for the awakening of the intellect and spiritual insight.

Can women chant the Gayatri mantra?§

Classical law books restricted Vedic recitation, including the Gayatri, to initiated men of the upper classes. Reform movements such as the Arya Samaj and the Gayatri Pariwar opened it to women and to all castes, and today many Hindu women recite it, though some traditionalists still disagree.

When is the Gayatri mantra recited?§

Traditionally it is recited at the three junctions of the day, dawn, midday and dusk, during the sandhya worship, often 108 times on a rosary. Many Hindus also recite it before study, at the start of rituals or as a general daily prayer.

Why is it called the Gayatri?§

The name comes from the gayatri metre in which the verse is composed, three lines of eight syllables. Over time the name of the metre came to refer to this particular verse, which was also personified as the goddess Gayatri.

Sources and further reading§

• The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India — Stephanie W. Jamison & Joel P. Brereton (trans.), 2014
• The Hymns of the Rigveda — Ralph T. H. Griffith (trans.), 1889
• The Vedic Experience: Mantramañjarī — Raimon Panikkar, 1977
• The Laws of Manu — Wendy Doniger & Brian K. Smith (trans.), 1991
• Upaniṣads — Patrick Olivelle (trans.), 1996
• Mantra — Harvey P. Alper (ed.), 1989