tenÄsau caturo vedÄmÅ›
caturbhir vadanair vibhuḥ
sa-vyÄhá¹›tikÄn soá¹kÄrÄmÅ›
cÄtur-hotra-vivaká¹£ayÄ

 tena - with that body of sounds; asau - he; caturaḥ - the four; vedÄn - Vedas; caturbhiḥ - from his four; vadanaiḥ - faces; vibhuḥ - the all-powerful; sa-vyÄhá¹›tikÄn - along with the vyÄhá¹›tis (the invocations of the names of the seven planetary systems: bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ, mahaḥ, janaḥ, tapaḥ and satya); sa-oá¹kÄrÄn - along with the seed, oá¹; cÄtuḥ-hotra - the four aspects of ritual sacrifice performed by the priests of each of the four Vedas; vivaká¹£ayÄ - with the desire of describing.


Text

All-powerful BrahmÄ made use of this collection of sounds to produce from his four faces the four Vedas, which appeared together with the sacred oá¹kÄra and the seven vyÄhá¹›ti invocations. His intention was to propagate the process of Vedic sacrifice according to the different functions performed by the priests of each of the four Vedas.

Purport