How can we say that Brihaspati the Deva Guru is not worshipped. He is the same as Guru or Viyazhan and is part of the Navagruha deities. The following is the shloka for Guru :
Devanamcha Rishinamcha Gurum Kanchana Sannibam
Buddhi Bhootam Trilokesam Tam Namami Brihaspathim
Further, Agni and Vayu are also worshipped as the Digdevatas when we do Navagruha Shanthi, Mahanyasam etc. as the respective lords of the directions. Indra also is worshipped in Mahanyasam as a Umamaheshwara Parshad. (like a member of the Cabinet of Lord Shiva) While bhogi is a separate festival in TN for Indira, there is no temple for Indra.. There is also no Pooja Kalpa for Bhogi festival in the books and have not seen any Vadhyar performing specific pooja for Bhogi. Indra is also worshipped as Abhyankara. I hope to be confirmed or in case there are counter points I may be so informed.
Dear Shri Ramamoorthy,
Since you have not quoted the post to which you replied, I am unable to locate it. The profiles of most rigvedic deities has undergone changes in the course of time, in some cases very radically. In my view Br^haspati is one such case of radical change. I will try to give some references.
Saunaka's br^haddevata deals with the devatas of the rigveda. Saunaka states at the beginning like this:
"In every rik (mantra) one should know the divinity with exactness; for he who knows the divinities of the mantras, understands their object. (दॆवतम् हि तत्सर्वम् अवगछति)"
Regarding br^haspati, Saunaka says:
39. Because he protects (पाति) the two great (बॄहत्) worlds, the middle and the highest, he is, by reason of this great function, lauded as Br^haspati (बृहस्पति).
Yaska's Nirukta (etymology) x.11 states:
br^haspatir br^hataH pAtA pAlayitA vA (बृहस्पतिर्बृहतः पाता पालयिता वा);
br^hataH has been explained by Durga as ’mahato asya jagata udakasya vA’ (महतॊ अस्य जगत उदकस्य वा).
There are 19 riks in Mandala II. Sukta 23 of the rigveda for which br^haspati/brahmanaspati are the deities (devata).
"Brihaspati, Brahmanaspati, Brahma are the three names of the god to whom the Rishi Vamadeva addresses this mystic hymn of praise. In the later Puranic theogonies Brihaspati and Brahma have long become separate deities. Brahma is the Creator, one of the Three who form the great Puranic Trinity; Brihaspati is a figure of no great importance, spiritual teacher of the gods and incidentally guardian of the planet Jupiter; Brahmanaspati, the middle term which once linked the two, has disappeared. To restore the physiognomy of the Vedic deity we have to reunite what has been disjoined and correct the values of the two separated terms in the light of the original Vedic conceptions." -Aurobindo Kapali Sastry's comments. May be read fully at-
.:SAKSI: Vedic Literature: Rig Veda: Explaining the Gods: Brihaspati, power of soul:.
Incidentally, and I wrote this in another thread, the famous rik starting "ganaanaam tvaa..." which is now used to invoke ganapathy or vinayaka, is in this sukta addressed to br^haspati/brahmanaspati.
Another rik from the same sukta starting, "br^haspate atiyadaryO arhaad..." is used in the navagrahasuktam. Thus br^haspati has been demoted in the puranas to a minor deity representing the planet Jupiter.
A similar demotion can be seen for agni, varuna and vayu as well as Indra. Indra was the foremost deity in the rigveda with the maximum suktas addressed to him. By the time of the puranas he gets demoted as an entity capable of all faults of human beings and worse, and gets cursed for his faults/weaknesses many times.
To say that we still worship these deities may be technically correct but in reality we have downgraded them and gone for Krishna and Rama instead in a big way.
