IBefore you read
Twenty-four syllables, less than half a minute when read slowly. And yet this is the most widely recited Vedic verse in Hindu life. It comes from the Rigveda, the oldest layer of the tradition's scriptures, was passed down by word of mouth over a great many generations, is given by teacher to pupil in the sacred thread ceremony, and is recited in many families at sunrise, at noon and at sunset. People call it the Gayatri Mantra, even though the word gayatri was originally the name of a verse form, not a proper name of the mantra itself.
The mantra has two names. The common one is Gāyatrī गायत्री, taken from the meter the verse uses, three lines of eight syllables each. The older one is Sāvitrī सावित्री, meaning the verse addressed to the god Savitr. Britannica records both names and calls it a prayer for spiritual stimulation, addressed to the sun. The Laws of Manu, an ancient Brahmin law book, call it the Rik verse sacred to Savitr that begins with the word tad.
The first thing you should know is that the mantra as it is recited today has two layers. The inner layer is the Rigveda verse, three lines, twenty-four syllables, beginning with tat savitur vareṇyaṃ. The outer layer is the opening line oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, made up of the sacred syllable Om and three utterances that name three worlds, called the three vyāhṛti. That opening line is not in the Rigveda. It was added in the practice of recitation, and that practice goes back a very long way.
The second thing to know is that in the Rigveda every syllable carries a high or low pitch accent, and those who learn the Veda in the old way must chant each accent correctly. Common printed and recited versions, like the full text table on this page, do not mark those accents. The section on the history of the text just below quotes one line of transliteration with its accents, so you can see what they look like.
This page presents the full text in Devanagari script, a transliteration in the IAST system that scholars use, Vietnamese and English translations made by the library itself, and then a word by word commentary. Four words, dhīmahi, pracodayāt, bhargas and the god's name Savitṛ, are understood in several different ways, and the library records those readings openly instead of choosing one and writing as if the matter were settled.
Place in the Rigveda. According to Britannica, the Rigveda consists of 1,028 hymns arranged in 10 books called maṇḍala, composed in an archaic form of Sanskrit around 1500 BCE and preserved orally before it was written down. The Gayatri verse is verse 10 of hymn 62 in book 3, that is, Rigveda 3.62.10. The traditional index that accompanies the text assigns this verse to the ṛṣi Viśvāmitra, son of Gāthin, names the deity addressed as Savitā, and gives the meter as gāyatrī. Verse 11, which follows in the same hymn, also invokes the god Savitr.
Accent marks. In the saṃhitā text, this verse is recorded with its accents. Dominik A. Haas's 2023 article transcribes it in Latin letters as follows: tát savitúr váreṇiyaṃ bhárgo devásya dhīmahi, dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt. The acute marks over the Latin letters indicate the syllables that carry the high pitch. The i in váreṇiyaṃ is restored by Haas on metrical grounds and does not appear in the traditional written form. The full text table on this page leaves these marks out, as common recitation does.
The opening line. In the White Yajurveda, that is, the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, at chapter 36 verse 3, the mantra already follows the three words bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ. Ralph T. H. Griffith's English translation of that verse opens with three words for earth, the middle region and heaven, then refers back to the Savitr verse already given in an earlier chapter. The syllable Om, placed before all three words, is spelled out in the Laws of Manu at verse 2.81: the three great vyāhṛti preceded by the syllable Om, followed by the three-line Sāvitrī verse, are the gateway to the Veda. So the line oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ is part of an established practice of recitation, not part of the Rigveda poem.
Where versions differ. In wording, the sources the library compared agree entirely on the Rigveda verse. The differences lie only in line breaks and punctuation. Some versions run all four lines together, others place the mark । after dhīmahi, as the saṃhitā text does. In the opening line, lineages following the Taittirīya tradition usually read suvaḥ instead of svaḥ, as in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.5. The version on this page follows the more widespread svaḥ.
IIThe full text of the Gayatri Mantra
| Verse | Original Devanagari | IAST transliteration | English | Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः | oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ | Om. Earth, the middle air, heaven. | Om. Cõi đất, cõi khoảng giữa, cõi trời. |
| 2 | तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं | tat savitur vareṇyaṃ | That which is worthy to be chosen, belonging to Savitr, | Điều đáng chọn lựa ấy của thần Savitr, |
| 3 | भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि । | bhargo devasya dhīmahi | the radiance of the god, on this we contemplate, | ánh quang huy của vị thần, chúng tôi chiêm niệm, |
| 4 | धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥ | dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt | the one who urges our thoughts onward. | đấng thúc giục tâm trí chúng tôi tiến lên. |
IIIWord by word commentary
The mantra is short enough to be explained one word at a time. What follows keeps to the order in which it is recited, starting with the opening line and then moving through the three lines of the Rigveda verse. Wherever ancient Vedic grammar and the understanding of later generations differ, both are recorded. The library relies mainly on the 2023 analysis by Dominik A. Haas, the medieval commentary of Sāyaṇa as given in H. H. Wilson's translation, and the translations that Haas cites.
The sacred syllable that opens and closes most recitations in Hinduism. The Laws of Manu, verse 2.76, tell how Prajāpati milked out of the three Vedas the three sounds A, U and M, the three components of the syllable Om, together with the three words bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ. The point of the story is that Om and those three words are regarded as the condensed essence of all three Vedas.
It bears repeating: the syllable Om is not in Rigveda verse 3.62.10. It is placed before the mantra by the practice of recitation, and the Laws of Manu at verse 2.81 already recorded that practice as a formula: Om, then the three vyāhṛti, then the Sāvitrī verse.
Three words naming three worlds in the Vedic cosmology. Bhūḥ is the earth, the world where humans stand. Bhuvaḥ is the space between earth and sky, where wind and clouds are. Svaḥ is heaven, the world of light. The word bhūḥ becomes bhūr because of the Sanskrit rules of sandhi, or sound joining, before a voiced consonant.
The three words are called vyāhṛti, meaning utterances. The Taittirīya Upaniṣad, at chapter 1.5, says that there are these three vyāhṛti and names a fourth as well, mahaḥ. In common recitation only the first three are spoken.
As reciters understand it, placing these three words before the mantra calls all three worlds into the prayer before turning to the god Savitr. Some take the three words to correspond to three states of mind, others to the three Vedas, as the Laws of Manu tell it. Such readings belong to the tradition of interpretation, not to what the words themselves say.
The first word of the Rigveda verse, meaning that, that thing. It is a neuter pronoun, and in the usual reading it goes with the neuter noun bhargas in the next line: that radiance. Because this word comes first, the Laws of Manu call the whole verse the one beginning with tad.
There is another reading. According to Haas, the scholar Walter Slaje proposed taking tat as an adverb, meaning thus, therefore, and reading the last line as a clause of purpose. On that reading, the verse says that by receiving the radiance one gains the stimulation. This is a scholarly reading, not the way reciters usually understand it.
The genitive of the god's name Savitṛ, meaning of Savitr. The name comes from the verbal root sū, meaning to impel, to set in motion. Haas therefore translates the god's name by its root meaning, the Impeller. The god's name and the verb at the end of the verse, pracodayāt, both carry the idea of impelling, so the mantra opens and closes on the same idea.
Whether Savitr is the sun or the impelling force behind the sun is something scholars understand differently. The section on the god Savitr below goes into more detail.
An adjective from the root vṛ, meaning to choose, to desire. Its literal sense is worthy to be chosen, worth longing for. Older English translations often render it as excellent, while Haas keeps the root meaning, desirable.
Metrically, this word is the only place in the verse where the written form does not match the syllable count. As written, the first pada has only seven syllables. To reach the eight syllables the gāyatrī meter requires, it has to be read vareṇiyaṃ, with an i sound inserted. Haas notes that this i can only be restored through meter. Common recitation still says vareṇyaṃ, with seven syllables.
The neuter noun bhargas, whose ending changes to bhargo under the rules of sandhi because it stands before the word devasya. It means brilliance, radiance.
The word is understood in at least three ways. According to Wilson's translation, Sāyaṇa explains bhargas as the light that is one with Brahman, with the power to burn away ignorance, or as the orb of the sun that burns away sin, and he also records a further reading, food. The reading of burning rests on the word's closeness in sound to the verb bhṛj, meaning to roast, to burn. Haas, for his part, holds that in the Rigveda the word refers to a real light, probably the reddish glow before sunrise and after sunset, tied to Savitr's impelling power, and that only later did it come to be understood abstractly as a divine splendor.
Haas's reading is worth noting because it matches the hours of recitation: the mantra is said precisely at daybreak and at dusk.
The genitive of deva, meaning of the god. The word deva shares its root with the idea of light, of the sky. Here devasya goes with savitur in the line above: of the god Savitr. The two genitives stand apart on two lines with the noun bhargas set between them, a word order familiar in Vedic poetry.
This is the most debated word, and it is the main verb of the verse. There are two broad readings.
The first, following Vedic grammar. Haas analyzes dhīmahi as an aorist form, in the optative or the injunctive mood, in the middle voice of the root dhā, whose basic meaning is to place, and which in the middle voice means to receive, to take to oneself. On this reading the verse says: may we receive that radiance. The 2014 translation by Jamison and Brereton and the translation by Griffith go in this direction.
The second, following later Sanskrit. As those ancient verb forms faded from the spoken language, later generations understood dhīmahi as coming from the root dhī, meaning to think, to contemplate, to behold. On this reading the verse says: we contemplate that radiance. Sāyaṇa explains it in the sense of meditation, Monier Williams in 1877 translated it as let us meditate, and Wilson in 1866 also translated it as we meditate. Haas notes that this has been a very widespread reading from the medieval commentators to the present day.
The Vietnamese and English columns on this page follow the second reading, because that is the sense most reciters today carry in mind. Following the first reading, that line would read: the radiance of the god, may we receive it. Haas offers two parallel translations for exactly these two layers of meaning and writes that there need not be only one correct translation.
The accusative plural of the noun dhī, which becomes dhiyo under the rules of sandhi. It means thoughts, insights, and in Vedic poetry it often refers to the poet's vision, the inspiration from which a hymn is made. Sāyaṇa, in Wilson's translation, explains the word as acts, that is, rites, or as understanding.
The word dhiyo sounds very close to dhīmahi just before it. Haas holds that the two words do not share an etymological root, and that the closeness in sound is a deliberate play on words by the poet. It is this very closeness that helped later generations understand dhīmahi as to contemplate.
Yaḥ, which becomes yo, is a masculine relative pronoun, meaning who, the one who. Naḥ means our.
What is worth noticing is grammatical gender. The verse opens with two neuter words, tat and bhargas, but the last line uses a masculine pronoun. So the one who urges in the last line is the god Savitr, who is masculine, and not the radiance. According to Haas, the scholar Vishva Bandhu proposed in 1954 reading yo as a neuter form, so that the radiance becomes the subject of the final verb, and Haas rejects that reading because it bends the grammar. In the understanding of reciters, the line between the god and his light is often not drawn so sharply.
A compound verb made of the prefix pra, meaning forward, and the root cud, meaning to urge, to spur, in its causative form. Its literal sense is to drive forward.
The mood of this verb is also understood in two ways. According to Haas, in Vedic it is the conjunctive, usually called the subjunctive, and that mood speaks of something expected to happen rather than a wish: who will urge our thoughts. Jamison and Brereton translate in this direction. When that mood disappeared, later generations read it as a prayer: may he stir our minds. Griffith and Monier Williams translate in this direction.
The Vietnamese column on this page chooses a neutral wording, the one who urges our thoughts onward, so as not to lean fully to either side. Pracodayāt is the last word, and for that reason it is also the word that reciters stress and draw out the longest.
IVThe gayatri meter and the god Savitr
Many readers think that Gayatri is the name of a deity or a proper name of the mantra. In fact gāyatrī is the name of a Vedic verse form, just as lục bát is the name of a Vietnamese verse form. The traditional index of the Rigveda clearly gives the meter of verse 3.62.10 as gāyatrī, just as it gives the name of the ṛṣi and of the deity addressed.
The gāyatrī meter has three lines, each called a pada, with eight syllables in each, twenty-four syllables in all. The Rigveda has a great many verses in this meter, addressed to many different gods. The verse to Savitr in book 3 became so famous that the name of the meter became its own name. Later, many more verses were composed on the same pattern for individual deities, and the Sanskrit Documents collection has gathered a whole list of such gāyatrī verses, in which the verse to Savitr is filed under the sun.
| Pada | Original text | Syllable division | Syllables |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं | tat sa vi tur va reṇ yaṃ | 7 as written, 8 when read metrically as va re ṇi yaṃ |
| Second | भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि | bhar go de vas ya dhī ma hi | 8 |
| Third | धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् | dhi yo yo naḥ pra co da yāt | 8 |
The Laws of Manu, verse 2.77, give a traditional account of these three lines: Prajāpati milked out of the three Vedas the Rik verse sacred to Savitr, one line from each Veda. So in the view of the law book, the three padas of the mantra correspond to the three Vedas, just like the three sounds A, U, M of Om and the three vyāhṛti. The number three recurs in all three layers of the recitation.
This meter is also discussed in the Upaniṣads. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad, in chapter 3.12, takes gāyatrī itself as a subject of meditation and speaks of it as something that encompasses all things. There, gāyatrī is no longer just a pattern for counting syllables but has become a symbol.
Savitr, the Impeller
Savitr सवितृ is a god of the Rigveda associated with the sun. As noted in the commentary, his name comes from the root sū, meaning to impel, to set in motion. In the Rigveda hymns addressed to him alone, Savitr is often described as the god who wakes all creatures in the early morning and sends them to rest in the evening, the god with golden hands raised to set the new day in motion.
The Rigveda also has another sun god, Sūrya. Scholars understand the relation between the two differently. Some see Savitr as the sun itself under another title, others see Savitr as the impelling force behind the sun, what makes the sun rise and set, rather than the shining disk in the sky. The library's main page on Hinduism places Sūrya among the deities of the Vedic period whose prominence has since faded, and the name Savitr is best known today through the Gayatri verse itself.
In later Sanskrit, that boundary blurs. Haas gives two parallel translations, and in the one that follows later Sanskrit he renders the god's name as the Sun God. Britannica likewise describes the mantra as a prayer addressed to the sun.
In the commentarial tradition, the Savitr of the Gayatri verse is not only the physical sun. Sāyaṇa explains Savitr's radiance as the light that is one with Brahman, the absolute reality, and as what burns away ignorance. On this understanding, the reciter is not asking the sun for anything but turning the mind toward the source of light behind all light, so that this very source may awaken the reciter's understanding. That is why the mantra is regarded as a mantra of wisdom rather than a mantra for blessings.
Haas reads the mantra closer to its physical setting. In his view, in the Rigveda the word bhargas probably refers to the real light at dawn and dusk, and the mantra says that the reciters hope to receive that light of Savitr, who will drive their thoughts forward. On this reading, the poet's inspiration and the start of a new day are set side by side. Haas also stresses that the meaning of the mantra changed over time along with the changes in the Sanskrit language, so both the Vedic understanding and the later understanding have grounds in its history.
VUpanayana, sandhyavandana and a wider transmission
For most of its history, the Gayatri verse was not something anyone could hear and then recite. It was bound tightly to a ritual, the upanayana उपनयन, and to a daily duty that follows that ritual, the sandhyāvandana सन्ध्यावन्दन rite. This section describes those two rituals and then how the mantra gradually moved beyond its old setting.
Upanayana, the sacred thread ceremony
The word upanayana means leading near, that is, leading the pupil to the teacher's side. According to Hindupedia, the boy undergoing the rite, called a vaṭu and aged between 7 and 16, is invested with the sacred thread yajñopavīta made of three twisted strands, holds a staff of palāśa wood, and the heart of the ceremony is the Sāvitrī upadeśa, the teacher's imparting of the Sāvitrī verse to the pupil. The teacher must teach the verse with the correct intonation until the pupil knows it completely.
The Laws of Manu set the age for the rite by varna. Verse 2.36 gives the eighth year counted from conception for a Brahmin, the eleventh for a Kṣatriya and the twelfth for a Vaiśya. Verse 2.38 sets the final limit for receiving the Sāvitrī at the end of the sixteenth, twenty-second and twenty-fourth year for those three varnas. Britannica also describes the mantra as used most prominently in the upanayana ceremony for boys of certain castes.
One who has gone through the upanayana is called a dvija, twice-born. The first birth is from the mother, the second is birth into the Vedic life through the Sāvitrī verse. Hindupedia relates the view that the mantra gives the pupil a second eye, the eye of knowledge. The Laws of Manu, verse 2.78, say that a Brahmin learned in the Veda who recites the syllable Om and that verse, preceded by the three vyāhṛti, at the two twilights gains the full merit of reciting all three Vedas. Verse 2.81 calls Om, the three vyāhṛti and the Sāvitrī verse the gateway to the Veda.
Sandhyāvandana, the rite of the three times of day
The word sandhyā means a junction, the moment of passing from night to day and from day to night. Vandana means worship. According to Hindupedia, a pupil who has undergone upanayana and a householder of dvija standing have the duty of performing the sandhyā rite three times a day, including a part devoted to meditation and a part devoted to repeating the Gayatri verse.
There is a difference between the ancient texts and later practice. The Laws of Manu, verse 2.101, speak of only two times: in the morning, standing and reciting the Sāvitrī until the sun appears, and in the evening, seated and reciting until the stars can be seen clearly. Later practice added a noon session, making three. The full rite also includes sipping water, breath control and an offering of water toward the sun called arghya, and the order of the parts varies with the Vedic lineage the family follows.
Because the Gayatri verse was imparted in the upanayana, and that rite, according to the law books, was reserved for boys of the three upper varnas, for many centuries the mantra belonged to a narrow circle. Neil Dalal, in an article published in the journal Religions of South Asia in 2023, describes how the mantra went from a private initiation rite within Vedic Brahmin culture to a public, widely known mantra.
According to Dalal, the Hindu reform movements around the turn of the twentieth century were a pivotal factor. Through rites of admission into the faith that made no distinction of gender, religion of origin or caste, the mantra was taken out of the custody of orthodox Brahmins, and from a symbol of dvija identity it became a broader symbol of Hindu identity. Haas adds that thanks to Vivekananda and movements such as the Arya Samaj, the mantra has also entered cultural currents outside South Asia, printed on clothing, set to music, and chanted in yoga studios and at festivals.
The library records this process as a historical fact. Both approaches are still present today. Some communities keep the rule that the mantra goes together with the upanayana and is imparted by a teacher, while other communities recite it together without that requirement. Each side has its own reasons within its own tradition, and the library does not adjudicate between them.
VIWhen and how the faithful recite it
The Gayatri verse is recited by the hours of the sun. That is what links today's recitation to a Rigveda verse composed around 1500 BCE, by the date Britannica gives, and addressed to the god who sets the new day in motion. What follows describes the times and ways of reciting that are most often encountered, as an outside observer would see them.
The most important time. The Laws of Manu, verse 2.101, describe the reciter standing and repeating the Sāvitrī until the sun appears. Those performing the rite usually face east, and in many places the rite is done on a riverbank or beside a water tank so that water can be offered to the sun. Verse 2.102 says that one who recites in the morning removes the faults committed during the night.
The second time in the three-times rite that Hindupedia describes, when the sun stands overhead. The text of Manu does not mention this time. It belongs to later practice. For people who go out to work, this is the session most often skipped or shortened.
According to the Laws of Manu, verse 2.101, the reciter sits and repeats the mantra until the stars can be clearly seen in the sky. Verse 2.102 says that one who recites in the evening removes the faults committed during the day. Standing in the morning and sitting in the evening is a distinction that many families keep.
Repeating a mantra many times is called japa. According to Britannica, a japa mālā usually has 108 beads and one larger bead that marks the beginning and the end. The reciter moves one bead for each repetition. According to prokerala.com, during Gayatri Japam the mantra is recited 108 times, and some recite it 1,008 times in a row.
Beyond the daily hours, there is a special day in the year devoted to the mantra, falling just after the full moon of the month of Śrāvaṇa, around July or August in the Gregorian calendar. According to prokerala.com, in the southern states of India this day goes together with Avani Avittam and Upākarma, the annual renewal of the sacred thread.
In temples, the Gayatri verse is often heard in the chanting of the priests. At home, it is said before the altar, before study, or simply on waking. Besides the verse to Savitr there are many gāyatrī verses for individual deities, used in the worship of each of them.
Differences between lineages
Pronunciation. Those who learn the Veda in the old way chant the mantra with the full high and low pitch accents of the saṃhitā text. Most people who recite it daily say it in an even tone, without the accents. Lineages following the Taittirīya tradition say suvaḥ in the opening line. Some read all four lines in one breath, others pause after each pada. People trained in meter sometimes say vareṇiyaṃ to make eight syllables, while most say vareṇyaṃ.
Aloud or silently. In sandhyāvandana, the mantra is usually repeated softly, just loud enough for oneself to hear, or repeated silently in the mind. At group recitations, the mantra is said aloud or sung to a melody. Today's recordings and musical settings belong to the latter style.
With or without Om and the vyāhṛti. In sandhyāvandana, the mantra comes with Om and the three vyāhṛti, as the Laws of Manu record. But when the verse is recited as part of the complete Rigveda hymn, it stands in the middle of hymn 3.62 without the opening line, like every other verse.
Who recites. As the section above described, some communities keep the rule that only those who have undergone upanayana recite it, while others open it to everyone. An observer will encounter both approaches, sometimes within the same city.
The library describes these things so that you can understand what you see and hear, not to give ritual instruction. When to recite, how many times, and whether the mantra must be imparted by a teacher are matters for each lineage and each family, and only those within the tradition can answer them.
VIICommon misunderstandings
The mantra has traveled the world through books, recordings and yoga studios, and each leg of the journey has left behind a few skewed understandings. The five points below are the ones the library encounters most often.
It is not. Rigveda verse 3.62.10 begins with the word tat. The three vyāhṛti already stood before the mantra in the White Yajurveda, and the formula of Om, then the three vyāhṛti, then the Sāvitrī verse is recorded in the Laws of Manu, verse 2.81. This belongs to a long-established practice of recitation, not to the original poem.
Gāyatrī is the name of the meter of three lines of eight syllables, and the deity addressed in the verse is Savitr. Later the tradition personified the mantra as the goddess Gāyatrī. Both layers are real in the history of Hinduism, but the Rigveda verse does not mention any goddess.
The verse to Savitr is the most famous, but the gāyatrī meter is used for a great many other verses. Later generations even composed a whole series of gāyatrī verses for individual deities on the same pattern, and the Sanskrit Documents collection has gathered a long list of them. When people say Gayatri Mantra without further qualification, they mean Rigveda verse 3.62.10.
This is the most common understanding today, and it has grounds in the commentarial tradition from Sāyaṇa onward. But according to Vedic grammar, the word may be the verb to receive, in which case the verse says may we receive the radiance. Translators understand it differently, and the library records both readings.
The content of the mantra concerns light and a mind that is urged forward. Sāyaṇa does record a reading of bhargas as food and says the reciter hopes for rewards such as food, but the main current of the tradition regards this as a mantra of wisdom. The library relays the content as it stands, and does not vouch on your behalf for any efficacy of reciting it.
?Quick Questions
What is the Gayatri Mantra
It is verse 10 of hymn 62 in book 3 of the Rigveda, the oldest layer of Hindu scripture, addressed to the god Savitr and written in the gāyatrī meter of three lines with eight syllables each. The traditional index assigns the verse to the ṛṣi Viśvāmitra. The mantra is imparted by teacher to pupil in the upanayana ceremony and recited in the sandhyāvandana rite at dawn, noon and dusk. Its older name is Sāvitrī.
Is Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ part of the Rigveda
No. The Rigveda verse begins with the words tat savitur. The three words bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, called the three vyāhṛti and meaning earth, the middle region and heaven, already stood before the mantra in the White Yajurveda. The syllable Om placed before all three is recorded in the Laws of Manu, verse 2.81, as a formula: Om, the three vyāhṛti, then the three-line Sāvitrī verse. This is part of the practice of recitation, not part of the original poem.
Does dhīmahi mean to contemplate or to receive
Both readings have their followers. Following Vedic grammar, many scholars such as Dominik A. Haas analyze dhīmahi as a form of the root dhā, giving the sense may we receive the radiance. When that verb form disappeared, later generations understood it as coming from the root dhī, meaning we contemplate, and this has been the common understanding from Sāyaṇa to the present. The translation on this page follows the second reading and records the first in the commentary.
Why is the mantra called Gayatri
Because gāyatrī is the name of the meter the mantra uses: three lines, eight syllables each, twenty-four syllables in all. The Rigveda has many verses in the same meter, but the verse to Savitr became so famous that the name of the meter became its name. Its older name is Sāvitrī, meaning the verse to Savitr. Later the mantra was also personified as the goddess Gāyatrī.
When and how many times do the faithful recite the Gayatri Mantra
Following the custom of sandhyāvandana, the mantra is recited at three times of day: dawn, noon and dusk. The Laws of Manu speak of only the two twilights, standing in the morning until the sun is seen and seated in the evening until the stars are seen. Reciters usually count on a japa mālā, the kind of string that Britannica notes usually has 108 beads. On Gayatri Japam day, after the full moon of Śrāvaṇa, some recite it 108 times, others as many as 1,008 times.