About
Caturmasya — Son of Savitr and Prishni, Divine Form of the Four-Monthly Seasonal Sacrifices
Caturmasya · Caturmasya Deva · Caturmasya Yajna
Caturmasya is named in the Bhagavata Purana, Canto 6, Chapter 18, verse 1 as one of the sons of Prishni and the Aditya Savitr. His brothers are Agnihotra, Pasu, Soma, and the five Mahayajnas; his sisters are Savitri, Vyahriti, and Trayi. As a divine figure he is the personalised form of the Caturmasya sacrifices — the group of three srauta haviryajna rites performed at the commencement of each of the three main seasons of the Vedic year: the beginning of summer, the beginning of the rainy season, and the beginning of winter. Each is performed at a four-monthly interval, and the three together constitute the Caturmasya group — the sixth of the seven haviryajnas. His identity as a son of Savitr is theologically apt: Savitr as the presiding deity of the solar cycle and the transitions of time governs the seasonal rhythm that the Caturmasya sacrifices mark and sanctify.
✦ The Name
The name Caturmasya is a compound of catur, meaning four, and masya, meaning monthly or pertaining to a month, yielding the meaning of that which is four-monthly or relating to a period of four months. As a name for a divine being, it designates the god who is the personalised form of the sacrifices performed at four-monthly intervals to mark the seasonal transitions of the year. The name is also used in a separate and distinct context in the tradition to denote the four-month period of the monsoon season during which wandering ascetics and sannyasins are required to remain in one place — a usage entirely unrelated to the sacrificial rite and to this divine figure.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Savitr — the fifth of the twelve Adityas, son of Kashyapa and Aditi; presiding deity of divine impulsion, the animating solar force, and the governance of cosmic time and its seasonal divisions.
- Mother: Prishni — consort of Savitr.
- Brothers: Agnihotra, Pasu, Soma, and the five Mahayajnas.
- Sisters: Savitri, Vyahriti, and Trayi.
- Paternal grandfather: Kashyapa — one of the Saptarishis; son of Marichi, born from Brahma.
- Paternal grandmother: Aditi — daughter of Daksha; mother of all the Adityas.
✦ The Caturmasya Sacrifices and their Significance
The Caturmasya group consists of three distinct sacrificial rites performed at the beginnings of the three principal Vedic seasons. The first is the Vaishvadeva performed at the start of summer; the second is the Varunapraghasa performed at the start of the rainy season; and the third is the Sakamedha performed at the start of winter. Each involves specific oblatory materials appropriate to the season and the deity presiding over it. The Shatapatha Brahmana contains detailed discussion of all three rites and their cosmic significance as markers of the seasonal turning points of the year.
The Caturmasya sacrifices serve the function of ritually consecrating the transitions between the major seasons of the year — the moments when the relationship between the sun, the earth, and living beings shifts most significantly. As such they are intimately connected to the solar principle and to Savitr's governance of the cosmic time cycle. The Bhagavata Purana's footnote to Canto 6, Chapter 18, verse 1 explicitly identifies Caturmasya as the presiding deity over the three Caturmasya sacrifices performed at the beginning of the three main seasons. His birth as a son of Savitr thus reflects the direct functional relationship between the seasonal sacrificial rites and the solar animating principle whose governance of time those rites mark and honour.
✦ References
- Bhagavata Purana, Canto 6, Chapter 18, verse 1 and associated commentary: The primary source naming Caturmasya as a son of Prishni and Savitr; the commentary identifies him explicitly as the presiding deity of the three seasonal Caturmasya sacrifices.
- Shatapatha Brahmana: Primary treatment of the three Caturmasya rites — Vaishvadeva, Varunapraghasa, and Sakamedha — their procedures and seasonal cosmological significance.
- Taittiriya Samhita: Vedic source for the Caturmasya ritual procedures in the Krishna Yajurveda tradition.
- Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopaedia (1975): Reference for genealogical cross-checking of Savitr's family.