The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c18.s2.2

v1.c18.s2.2

Bṛhaspati is especially the divine priest; he is the Purohita, but also the Brahman, and the Brāhmaṇas constantly play on his position as the Brahman priest or the Brahman, ‘the holy power’, of the gods. In the later texts as Brahman he is probably denoted as the technical priest of that name, who oversees the sacrifice and, like Agni, is able by his invention to make good any defects which he may observe in the sacrifice. In the Rigveda the technical sense is doubtful: the Brāhmaṇācchaṅsin priest may, however, be meant in one or two cases.² He sings hymns, metre is his, he has singing hosts and thence is called Gaṇapati, a term once given to Indra. He is, as his name denotes, the lord of prayer, the generator of prayer which he communicated to men: hence in the later texts he is lord of speech, Vācaspati, a name which is specially his in post-Vedic literature.