Brihaspatiबृहस्पति

Brihaspati (बृहस्पति), the lord of the mighty word, is the god of prayer, eloquence and sacred wisdom — the divine counterpart of the priest. In the Ṛgveda, where he is also called Brahmanaspati, lord of the sacred formula, he is the purohita or chaplain of the gods: golden-hued, sharp-horned, armed not with a warrior's weapons but with the irresistible force of the chanted word. It is Brihaspati who, in one celebrated myth, splits the mountain cave of Vala with his roar and drives out the hidden cows of light — a priestly double of Indra's own deeds, victory won by utterance rather than the thunderbolt.

Preceptor of the gods

In the epics and Purāṇas Brihaspati is the guru of the devas, son of the sage Angiras, master of statecraft and ritual, forever matched against his rival Shukra, preceptor of the asuras. The best-known story about him is an injury he suffers: Soma, the moon, abducted Brihaspati's wife Tara, and the war fought over her divided the gods; the son she bore, Budha — the planet Mercury — was fathered by the moon, not the husband. The tale, told in several Purāṇas, gave the astrological tradition a genealogy for its planets and the preceptor of the gods an enduringly human grievance. A school of materialist philosophy, the Cārvāka, was also fathered on his name, tradition holding that he devised its doctrines to lead the demons astray.

Guru among the Navagraha

Brihaspati's widest presence in living Hinduism is astrological. As Guru, the planet Jupiter, he is one of the Navagraha, the nine celestial powers whose positions frame every horoscope. He is the great benefic: the planet of wisdom, expansion, teachers, children and fortune, whose favourable placement is prized and whose weakness is remedied with gemstones, mantras and fasting. Thursday — Guruvāra, Brihaspati's day — is named for him across Indian languages, and Navagraha shrines in temples throughout India include his image, typically golden-yellow and facing his own quarter. The Vedic lord of prayer thus survives, transposed, in the daily calendar and the astrologer's chart.