Upanishads · Atharvaśiras 17
॥
Devanāgarī
यो वै रुद्रः स भगवान् या च द्यौस् तस्मै वै नमोनमः
Transliteration (IAST)
yo vai rudraḥ sa bhagavān yā ca dyaus 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
या च द्यौःyā ca dyauḥand which is heaven; and that which is dyaus
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 heaven. To Him be homage and homage.
Version
482b3a7832b5 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:17:52 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The third of the element-worlds: dyaus, heaven.
The word is one of the oldest in the language, kin to the names of the sky-god among the Greeks and Latins. In the Ṛgveda Dyaus is the father and Pṛthivī the mother; they are invoked as a pair: dyāvāpṛthivī, “Heaven-and-Earth”.
The litany, then, has walked the whole triad: earth, mid-air, heaven. The same triad it already named by the utterances in sections twelve through fourteen.
Note that the fourth utterance — mahaḥ — has and can have no counterpart in the row of elements: “greatness” has no substance.
And this confirms what I said of the fifteenth section: the fourth stands not in the row but above it.
The next sections will leave the worlds and name the waters and the fire-heat.