Upanishads · Atharvaśiras 13
॥
Devanāgarī
यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान् यच् च भुवस् तस्मै वै नमोनमः
Transliteration (IAST)
yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān yac ca bhuvas 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 भुवःyat ca bhuvaḥand which is “bhuvaḥ”; and that which is bhuvaḥ
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 “bhuvaḥ” — the mid-air. To Him be homage and homage.
Version
91591d885b0a · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:17:52 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The second utterance is bhuvaḥ, the airy space between earth and heaven.
This is the antarikṣa: where the birds fly and the clouds walk, where the gandharvas dwell and where, by tradition, the unquiet dead wander.
In the Vedic count this world is always the middle one, and therefore it is the place of passage. What goes from earth to heaven goes through it; so does the sacrificial smoke.
Note that the three first utterances — earth, air, heaven — answer to the three fires that Rudra called His own in the first section, and to the three lights named in the sixth, eighth and ninth.
Vedic thought loves such triple correspondences: three worlds, three fires, three lights, three Vedas. It reads the universe as a repeating pattern.
And the litany simply walks the pattern, naming every point of it with one Name.