Shloka 91
Śiva-stavarāja: Upamanyu’s Preface and Initiation of the Śarva-Nāma Enumeration
Anuśāsana-parva 17
गण्डली मेरुधामा च देवाधिपतिरेव च । अथर्वशीर्ष: सामास्य ऋक््सहस्रामितेक्षण:
gaṇḍalī merudhāmā ca devādhipatir eva ca | atharvaśīrṣaḥ sāmāsya ṛk-sahasrāmitekṣaṇaḥ ||
Vāyu sprach: „Er ist Gaṇḍalī, der in den Höhlen der Berge weilt; Merudhāmā, dessen Wohnstatt der Berg Meru ist; wahrlich der Herr der Götter. Die Atharvaveda ist sein Haupt, die Sāmaveda sein Mund, und die Tausende Hymnen der Ṛgveda sind seine unermesslichen Augen.“
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a devotional and theological vision in which the supreme deity is identified with the Vedas themselves—head, mouth, and eyes—implying that sacred knowledge and divine sovereignty are inseparable, and that reverence for the Vedas is a form of reverence for the divine.
Vāyu is describing and praising a supreme divine figure through a chain of epithets (cave-dweller, resident of Meru, lord of the gods) and then through a cosmic-Vedic imagery where the deity’s body is mapped onto the three Vedas and the multitude of Ṛgvedic hymns.