Pauranic · पौराणिकDhyana shloka

Amardaka and Papabhakshana — Shiva Purana 3.8.48-49

Two more names, and their reasons: the crusher of the wicked, and the one who eats the sins of his devotees.

Shiva Purana, Shatarudra Samhita 3.8.48-49edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

आमर्दयिष्यति भवान् रुष्टो दुष्टात्मनो यतः । आमर्दक इति ख्यातिं ततः सर्वत्र यास्यसि ॥ ४८ ॥ यतः पापानि भक्तानां भक्षयिष्यसि तत्क्षणात् । पापभक्षण इत्येव तव नाम भविष्यति ॥ ४९ ॥

āmardayiṣyati bhavān ruṣṭo duṣṭātmano yataḥ । āmardaka iti khyātiṃ tataḥ sarvatra yāsyasi ॥ 48 ॥ yataḥ pāpāni bhaktānāṃ bhakṣayiṣyasi tatkṣaṇāt । pāpabhakṣaṇa ityeva tava nāma bhaviṣyati ॥ 49 ॥

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Meaning

Because you, when angered, will crush wicked souls, you will become known everywhere by the name Amardaka, the crusher. Because you will devour the sins of your devotees in that same instant, your name will be Papabhakshana, the eater of sin.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Both verses are anuṣṭubh and both are built the same way — a yataḥ clause giving the reason, then the name. Hearing that shape makes them easy. āmardayiṣyati is a long causative future, ā-mar-da-yiṣ-ya-ti. bhakṣayiṣyasi is its twin one verse later, bhak-ṣa-yiṣ-ya-si, with the retroflex ṣ in the middle. The parallel is deliberate: two futures of the same shape, one for the wicked and one for the sins of the devoted.

Repetitions: 1 · 3
Time: brahma muhurta

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

आमर्दयिष्यतिāmardayiṣyati: he will crush, grind down(3rd sg. caus. fut.)MW1899-CDSL p.147
रुष्टःruṣṭaḥ: angered(past part. nom. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.885
दुष्टात्मनःduṣṭātmanaḥ: wicked souls(acc. pl.)MW1899-CDSL p.488
आमर्दकःāmardakaḥ: the crusher(nom. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.147
ख्यातिम्khyātim: renown, the name by which one is known(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.341
पापानिpāpāni: sins(acc. pl. n.)MW1899-CDSL p.618
भक्तानाम्bhaktānām

Context

The naming continues, and these two verses are where the deity acquires the pair of names that look contradictory and are not. Āmardaka comes from ā-mṛd, to crush or to grind down, and the object is duṣṭātman — the wicked, not the wicked act. Pāpabhakṣaṇa comes from bhakṣ, to eat, and the object is pāpāni bhaktānām — the sins of devotees, not the devotees. The same deity crushes one and swallows the other, and the Purana states the distinction in successive verses so it cannot be missed. tatkṣaṇāt, 'in that same instant', is doing real work. It is the answer the tradition gives to the obvious objection about consequence: if Bhairava is the deity of accounts settled, what happens to a devotee's account? The verse says it is eaten, immediately, and does not soften that by adding conditions. Āmardaka survives as a proper name well beyond this passage: the Āmardaka maṭha was one of the principal Shaiva monastic lineages, named from a Bhairava epithet that begins here.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda: anushtubh
devata: Kala Bhairava

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Dhyana (meditation)Knowledge (jnana)

Classified as Pauranic — From the Puranas. Most widely recited deity mantras belong here. Basis for this classification.

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