Upanishads · Mahā 1.5
॥
Devanāgarī
पूर्वाभिमुखो भूत्वा भूरिति व्याहृतिर्गायत्रं छन्द ऋग्वेदोऽग्निर्देवता
Transliteration (IAST)
pūrvābhimukho bhūtvā bhūriti vyāhṛtirgāyatraṃ chanda ṛgvedo'gnirdevatā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
पूर्वाभिमुखः भूत्वाpūrvābhimukhaḥ bhūtvāhaving turned his face to the east; facing toward the sunrise
भूः इति व्याहृतिःbhūḥ iti vyāhṛtiḥ“bhūḥ” — the utterance; the vyāhṛti “bhūḥ”
गायत्रम् छन्दःgāyatram chandaḥthe gāyatra metre; the metre gāyatra
ऋग्वेदः अग्निः देवताṛgvedaḥ agniḥ devatāthe Ṛg-veda, the deity Agni; the Ṛg-veda, the god agni
Translation
Having turned his face to the east: the utterance “bhūḥ”, the gāyatra metre, the Ṛg-veda, the deity — Agni.
Version
c37aa442ed15 · published Jul 29, 2026, 6:29:20 AM UTC
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Here begins the four for whose sake Brahmā is called four-faced.
He turns to the four quarters, and from each quarter its own comes forth: an utterance, a metre, a Veda and a deity.
The east — “bhūḥ”, the gāyatra, the Ṛg-veda, Agni.
Note the order. The east is the quarter of sunrise; with it every rite begins. And from it comes the Ṛg-veda — the eldest of the four, and Agni — the one with whom it opens.
This device is usual in the śruti and is called a bond: to show that different fours are one. We read such charts in the Nṛsiṃha-tāpanī, where the four measures of the syllable Oṁ were laid out over the worlds, the Vedas, the gods and the sacrificial fires.
Here the bond is given otherwise — not by superposition but by birth. The Vedas are not matched with the quarters: they are spoken out of them.
And spoken by four faces. That is why the faces are four: by the number of what had to be said.