Upanishads · Atharvaśiras 12
॥
Devanāgarī
यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान् यच् च भूस् तस्मै वै नमोनमः
Transliteration (IAST)
yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān yac ca bhūs 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
यत् च भूःyat ca bhūḥand which is “bhūḥ”; and that which is bhūḥ
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 “bhūḥ” — the earth. To Him be homage and homage.
Version
fd340c3ff76e · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:17:52 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here begins the row of the four great utterances: bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ, mahaḥ.
These are the vyāhṛti — the words by which the worlds are named in the rite; pronouncing them, the priest as it were unrolls the universe.
The first, bhūḥ, is the earth.
Note that the litany names not “the earth” but the utterance itself — the word. The distinction is fine, but for these books paramount: to name the word is to name that by which the world holds, not only what lies underfoot.
The sixteenth section will name the earth once more, but as pṛthivī — the element.
The book, that is, distinguishes: one thing is the syllable by which the world is pronounced, another the substance of which it is made. Both, by name, are referred to One.
In the Rāma-tāpanī the same three utterances — bhūr bhuvaḥ suvaḥ — stand as the refrain of all forty-seven mantras, and the twentieth mantra names all seven.