Srimad Bhagavatam — Tritiya Skandha, Shloka 45
Brahmā’s Creation: The Kumāras, Rudra, the Prajāpatis, and the Manifestation of Vedic Sound
तस्योष्णिगासील्लोमभ्यो गायत्री च त्वचो विभो: । त्रिष्टुम्मांसात्स्नुतोऽनुष्टुब्जगत्यस्थ्न: प्रजापते: ॥ ४५ ॥
tasyoṣṇig āsīl lomabhyo gāyatrī ca tvaco vibhoḥ triṣṭum māṁsāt snuto ’nuṣṭub jagaty asthnaḥ prajāpateḥ
Thereafter the art of literary expression, uṣṇik, was generated from the hairs on the body of the almighty Prajāpati. The principal Vedic hymn, gāyatrī, was generated from the skin, triṣṭup from the flesh, anuṣṭup from the veins, and jagatī from the bones of the lord of the living entities.
FAQs
This verse states that key Vedic meters—Uṣṇik, Gāyatrī, Triṣṭubh, Anuṣṭubh, and Jagatī—manifest from the cosmic body of Prajāpati during creation.
To show that Vedic sound and its regulated poetic forms (chandas) are not human inventions but part of the divine, ordered process of creation.
It encourages reverence for śāstra and sacred recitation—approaching mantra, prayer, and scriptural study as spiritually potent and divinely rooted rather than merely literary.