Upanishads · Atharvaśiras 2
॥
Devanāgarī
ओं यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान् यश् च ब्रह्मा तस्मै वै नमोनमः
Transliteration (IAST)
oṃ yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān yaś ca brahmā tasmai vai namonamaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
यः वै रुद्रःyaḥ vai rudraḥhe who is Rudra; the one who is Rudra
सः भगवान्saḥ bhagavānhe is the Lord; he indeed is the Bhagavān
यः च ब्रह्माyaḥ ca brahmāand who is Brahmā; and the one who is Brahmā
तस्मै वै नमः नमःtasmai vai namaḥ namaḥto him be homage and homage; to him obeisance and obeisance
Translation
He who is Rudra — He is the Lord, and He is Brahmā. To Him be homage and homage.
Version
1d1e90163037 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:17:52 AM UTC
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The litany begins, and it will run for thirty-one sections: one and the same formula, each time a new name.
The first of them is Brahmā, the creator.
And this sets the reading of the whole book. Were Rudra here one of the three — creator, sustainer and destroyer — to say “he is Brahmā” would be nonsense.
The name “Rudra”, then, denotes here not a person in a row, but serves as the name of Him of whom all the speech is. The Śvetāśvatara does the same, calling the Highest now Rudra, now Hara, now Īśa.
Note the build of the formula: yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān — “he who is Rudra, he is the Bhagavān”. The word bhagavat means “possessed of the fullness of riches”; it stands as the predicate to all the names that follow.
And the refrain: tasmai vai namonamaḥ — “to him be homage and homage”. The same refrain, only with the three worlds added, sounds in the forty-seven mantras of the uttara-tāpanī of the Rāma-tāpanī.
The next section will name Viṣṇu.