Gayatri Jayanti 2026 Date

About Gayatri Jayanti

Marks the day Sage Vishvamitra is said to have received the Gayatri Mantra — Rigveda 3.62.10, a 24-syllable hymn to Savitr the Sun. Observed on Jyeshtha Shukla Ekadashi, right after Ganga Dussehra, with continuous japa of the mantra and worship of its personified form, Goddess Gayatri.

The verse itself is older than its goddess. Rigveda 3.62.10 is addressed to Savitr — the Sun as inner stimulator — and was composed by Vishvamitra, the Kshatriya king turned Brahmarishi who authored most of the Rig Veda's third mandala. The mantra takes its name from its meter: 24 syllables in three lines of eight. Goddess Gayatri is the personified form of that mantra, shown with five faces for the five pranas and five elements, ten hands bearing the weapons of the Trimurti, and three eyes — the only goddess depicted with Shiva's third eye. A second tradition shifts Gayatri Jayanti to Shravana Purnima, pairing it with Upakarma, when students renew the sacred thread and resume Veda study. The mantra is also the gift handed over at Upanayana, a child's first formal initiation into Vedic recitation.