Deities

Savitr

Also Known As Savitri (Sanskrit) The name is also used in the feminine form for the Gayatri verse itself. It is NOT the princess of the Mahabharata tale, who is a separate entry. · Savitar (Sanskrit)

Hindu Deities

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Savitr." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/deities/savitr.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Savitr. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/deities/savitr

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-savitr,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Savitr},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/deities/savitr},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Savitr is the Vedic deity of the impelling power of the sun, the one who sets things in motion, whose name comes from the root meaning to impel or to vivify. He is invoked at dawn and at dusk, gold handed and gold tongued, raising his arms to rouse the world and then to settle it to rest, and he is counted among the Adityas. The most repeated verse in the whole of Hinduism is addressed to him: the Gayatri, Rigveda 3.62.10, which asks that his desirable radiance impel our thoughts, and which is recited daily by the traditionally initiated. Savitr and Surya overlap and are sometimes the same sun under two aspects, the impelling and the shining, though the Rigveda also treats them as distinct and hymns them separately.

Facts

Attributions

Mythic Association

Savitr is a Vedic solar deity invoked in the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most repeated verses of the Rig Veda, addressed to him as the impeller of thought. 2

Identity

Gender

Male 1

Sources

Primary Source

Besides the Gayatri, Rigveda 1.35 is Savitr's other major hymn, describing his journey each evening in a golden chariot as every being, gods and mortals alike, comes to rest at his passing, an evening aspect that complements the Gayatri's invocation of him at dawn. 3

Textual Note

The Gayatri Mantra, among the most widely recited verses in Hinduism, is addressed to Savitr in the Rigveda's third mandala, asking the god to illuminate the reciter's intellect, and its continued daily recitation by observant Hindus today makes Savitr one of the few strictly Vedic solar deities whose worship persists largely through a single surviving verse rather than an ongoing independent cult. 3

Function

Domain / Function

Creation and Movement 1

Domain / Function

Sun 1

Attestation

Era of Attestation

1500 BCE to 2026 CE 1

Veneration Today

Actively venerated in a living tradition 1

Meaning in the Attesting Source

The impeller, from a root meaning to set in motion 1

Historicity

Legendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 2

Practice

Lineage

Savitr is counted among the Adityas, the group of solar deities born of the goddess Aditi, a class that in later systematizations expanded to twelve, though the earliest Vedic hymns do not fix a settled roster or number for the group. 1

Belief

Theology

Polytheistic: many gods 2

Origins

Origin of the Name

Savitr's name derives from a Sanskrit root meaning to impel or to stimulate, reflecting his character as the force that rouses the world into motion. 2

Cult

Principal Cult Centre

No single centre. The savitri verse, better known as the Gayatri, is addressed to him at the daily sandhya rite 1

Attributes and Iconography

Savitr is described as gold handed and gold tongued, raising his arms to rouse the world at dawn and lowering them to settle it to rest at dusk. 3

Position Profile

Key Text

The Gayatri Mantra, among the most sacred verses of the Rigveda, is addressed to Savitr and prays for him to illuminate the reciter's intellect, a verse so central to Vedic recitation that it is traditionally taught to a child at the sacred thread ceremony marking the start of formal study. 3

Learn More

The God Who Sets Things Moving

Savitr has about eleven hymns of the Rigveda to himself and is named in a great many more. His name is an agent noun from the root su, to impel, to set in motion, to bring forth, so the name is a job description: the impeller. What he impels is everything. He sends the day out and calls it back, settles the birds and the people to rest, assigns the gods their immortality, and the winds and the waters follow his instruction.

His epithets are unusually physical for a Vedic deity. He is golden-handed, hiranyapani, and golden-tongued, and the hymns show him raising his broad arms as the sign that the world should begin or should cease. One much-discussed passage speaks of his hand being cut and replaced with one of gold, which the later ritual literature elaborates at length.

He belongs to the transitions rather than to the middle of the day, which is why he is invoked at dawn and at dusk, and that is the ground of his enduring liturgical place. He is counted among the Adityas, the sons of Aditi, and shares their concern with what is sanctioned and lawful: to be impelled by Savitr is to be authorised, not merely pushed. Ritual formulas beginning with the words for the impulse of the god Savitr open a large number of Vedic acts, so that the first move in a rite is a statement of whose motion is being obeyed.

The Gayatri, and Savitr Beside Surya

Rigveda 3.62.10 is a verse in the Gayatri metre addressed to Savitr. It meditates on the desirable radiance of the god and asks that he impel our thoughts. Because it is addressed to Savitr it is properly the Savitri, and because of its metre it is universally called the Gayatri. It is embedded in the upanayana, the initiation at which the sacred thread is given and the teacher conveys the verse to the initiate, and it is recited at the morning and evening sandhya observance. It is very likely the most frequently recited verse in any living religion, and almost none of those who recite it are addressing a solar personality with a biography.

Whether Savitr is a separate deity from Surya is an old question that the Rigveda does not settle. Some hymns treat them as distinct and address them separately, and Savitr can be spoken of as preceding or following Surya. Others use the names in ways that are hard to hold apart at all. The traditional resolution, given in the ritual literature and repeated by later commentators, is that the sun before rising and after setting is Savitr while the visible disc between is Surya, so that one body carries two names according to whether its power or its appearance is in view. Modern scholarship treats that as a reconciliation offered later rather than as the position the hymns themselves take.

Correspondences & Relations

Pantheons

Hindu

Cross-Tradition Connections

Addressed By

Gayatri Hymn

The Gayatri verse addresses Savitr, the sun in his aspect as impeller.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Gayatri Mantra

The Gayatri Mantra addresses Savitr, the impelling aspect of the sun.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Gayatri Prayer

The Gayatri verse is addressed to Savitr, the solar deity of illumination.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Prayer to Savitr

This Vedic prayer is addressed to Savitr, the solar deity of stimulation and illumination.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Associated With

Gayatri Mantra

The Gayatri is addressed to him: Rigveda 3.62.10 asks that his radiance impel our thoughts.

Hasta

Named as the presiding deity of the lunar mansion Hasta.

Source History of Dharmasastra, Volume VP. V. Kane

Vishvamitra

The verse ascribed to him is addressed to Savitr.

Belongs to Tradition

Hinduism

Commonly Conflated with (See Note)

Savitri

Savitri the princess of the tale is not Savitr the Vedic solar deity, though she is named for him. The two names are one letter apart and the confusion is standard.

Member Of

The Adityas

Savitr is counted among the twelve in the later literature.

Source Vishnu PuranaAnonymous

Originated In

Indian Subcontinent

Related To

Surya

Why this is disputed. Savitr and Surya are both solar figures in the Rigveda, and the two overlap closely enough that they are sometimes read as two aspects of one sun, Savitr as the impelling force that sets the sun moving and Surya as the shining orb itself. The Rigveda nonetheless hymns them in separate hymns with separate epithets, and Vedic scholarship has not settled whether this reflects two names for a single deity, two distinct deities that later blurred together, or two originally separate solar figures the tradition never fully reconciled.

Source The Hymns of the Rigveda, translated with a popular commentaryRalph T. H. Griffith