Gayatri Mantra - Role in Vedic and Vedantic Literature

Role in Vedic and Vedantic Literature

The Savitri mantra is cited widely in Vedic texts.

• The Rgvedic stanza 3.62.10 is found a number of times in the mantra listings of the Śrauta liturgy, where it is used without any special distinction, typically as one among several stanzas dedicated to Savitar at appropriate points in the various rituals. Accordingly, the stanza is cited several times in the Brahmanas and the Srauta-sutras.

• In this corpus, there is only one instance of the stanza being prefixed with the three mahavyahrtis. This is in a late supplementary chapter of the Shukla Yajurveda samhita, listing the mantras used in the preliminaries to the pravargya ceremony. However, none of the parallel texts of the pravargya rite in other samhitas have the stanza at all. A form of the mantra with all seven vyahrtis prefixed is found in the last book of the Taittiriya Aranyaka, better known as the Mahanarayana Upanishad.

• The stanza is also cited in a number of grhyasutras, mostly in connection with the upanayana ceremony in which it has a significant role.

• The stanza is the subject of esoteric treatment and explanation in some major Upanishads, including Mukhya Upanishads such as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Maitrayaniya Upanishad; as well as other well-known works such as the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana.

• The stanza is the apparent inspiration for derivative "gāyatrī" stanzas dedicated to other deities, patterned on the formula ... vidmahe ... dhīmahi ... pracodayāt", instances of which have been interpolated into some recensions of the Shatarudriya litany. Gāyatrīs of this form are also found in the Mahanarayana Upanishad.