The first absorption band of OCS (carbonyl sulfide) is analyzed using potential energy surfaces and transition dipole moment functions of the lowest four singlet and the lowest four triplet states. Excitation of the 2 (1)A' state is predominant except at very low photon energies. It is shown that the vibrational structures in the center of the band are due to excitation of the 2 (3)A'' triplet state, whereas the structures at very low energies are caused by bending excitation in the potential wells of states 2 (1)A' and 1 (1)A''.