Gayatri Mantra: Textual appearances

The Buddhist Corpus

The following passages from Wikipedia --

In Majjhima Nikaya 92, the Buddha refers to the Sāvitri (Pali: sāvittī) mantra as the foremost meter, in the same secse as the king is foremost among humans, or the sun is foremost among lights:

aggihuttamukhā yaññā sāvittī chandaso mukham; Rājā mukhaṃ manussānaṃ, nadīnaṃ sāgaro mukhaṃ. Nakkhattānaṃ mukhaṃ cando, ādicco tapataṃ mukhaṃ; Puññaṃ ākaṅkhamānānaṃ, saṅgho ve yajataṃ mukhan.

The foremost of sacrifices is offering to the sacred flame; the Sāvittī is the foremost of poetic meters; of humans, the king is the foremost; the ocean’s the foremost of rivers; the foremost of stars is the moon; the sun is the foremost of lights; for those who sacrifice seeking merit,

the Saṅgha is the foremost.

In Sutta Nipata 3.4, the Buddha uses the Sāvitri mantra as a paradigmatic indicator of Brahmanic knowledge:

Brāhmaṇo hi ce tvaṃ brūsi, Mañca brūsi abrāhmaṇaṃ; Taṃ taṃ sāvittiṃ pucchāmi, Tipadaṃ catuvīsatakkharaṃ

If you say you brahmin are, but call me none, then of you I ask the chant of Sāvitrī, consisting of three lines in four and twenty syllables. -- Wikipedia