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Shiva tells Parvati that Rama's name equals the thousand names of Vishnu — Ramaraksha Stotra 38.
Shankara's verse on Murugan mounted on his peacock — Subrahmanya Bhujangam 3.
The Vedic gayatri of Shanmukha, the six-faced Subrahmanya — Mahanarayana Upanishad 1.26.
The opening verse of the Ganga Stotra: let my mind rest at your lotus feet.
Shankara's opening verse on the world seen as a city in a mirror.
The single most quoted line of the Bhairava tantras: shaivi mukham ihochyate, here Shakti is called the face.
Bhairava's own answer to what he actually is: released from the reckoning of space and time, and unspeakable in the strict sense.
Shiva names him, and gives the reasons: Kalaraja because he shines like time, Bhairava for two reasons at once, and Kalabhairava because time itself will fear him.
Abhinavagupta's hymn to Bhairava, from the Stotravali: I worship in my heart the lord who pervades everything moving and unmoving, by a mind made of you.
One anushtubh that names all eight principal Bhairavas in order: Asitanga, Ruru, Chanda, Krodha, Unmatta, Kapali, Bhishana and Samhara.
The verse that opens the Ashta Bhairava Dhyana Stotram: Bhairava is the complete form of Shiva, and those who miss it are deluded by Shiva's own maya.
The first of the eight verses to the lord of Kashi, each closing on the same line: I worship Kala Bhairava, master of the city of Kashi.
Not the mind, not the senses, not the elements — I am consciousness and bliss; I am Shiva.
I bow to Ishana, whose form is nirvana — Tulsidas's eight-verse hymn to Shiva, opening stanza.
The five-syllable Shiva mantra. The phrase occurs in the Shri Rudram of the Krishna Yajurveda.
The Tryambaka verse of the Rigveda, addressed to Rudra — a prayer for release, likening it to a ripe fruit loosening from its stem.
The Vedic gayatri of Rudra-Mahadeva — Mahanarayana Upanishad 1.23.
The verse that asks the question a devotional platform has to sit with: in a reality of that kind, who exactly is being worshipped?
Bhairava arrives at Vishnu's abode with the skull in his hand, and Vishnu falls flat on the ground like a staff.
The skull that would not fall anywhere else falls at Kashi, and the sin that followed him everywhere ends there.
The verses behind the whole Kotwal-of-Kashi tradition: Shiva hands Bhairava authority over the city, and names who keeps the record.
The verses that fix the date: the eighth of the waning fortnight of Margashirsha, and what is traditionally done on it.
The last of the eight: Bhairava as the officer who settles the accounts of everyone living in Kashi.
The laugh that cracks the cosmic egg, and the garland of skulls — the fiercest verse of the eight.
Jewelled sandals, and the breaking of death's pride: the verse that names Bhairava advaitiya — without a second.
Guardian of the bridge of dharma and cutter of the noose of karma — the verse this platform is named after.
The verse where the terrifying deity is called tender to his devotees, and a belt of small gold bells is heard at his waist.
The four things in his hands, and the dance he loves: the verse that fixes Bhairava's iconography.
Radiant as ten million suns and the ferry across the ocean of becoming: the second of the eight verses to the lord of Kashi.
The hymn's own closing statement about itself — the one verse of the nine that does not end on the refrain.
The first of the 112 techniques: the two ends of the breath, and the two silences the text says Bhairava's body shows itself in.
The two verses in which Bhairava first appears: Shiva hears Brahma's proud speech, and out of that anger a person comes into being.
Shiva tells Bhairava to hold Brahma's skull and to perform the expiation publicly, as a demonstration for the world.
Two more names, and their reasons: the crusher of the wicked, and the one who eats the sins of his devotees.
The seven-bija mantra of Mahakala Bhairava, given in the mantra section of the Ashta Bhairava Dhyana Stotram.
The four-bija invocation that opens each decade of the Kalabhairava Ashtottarashatanamavali, the hundred and eight names.
The five-verse visualisation of Batuka Bhairava, the child form called Apaduddharaka — 'he who lifts one out of calamity'. Recited before his hundred and eight names.
The first line of the Shri Rudram, the central Vedic hymn to Rudra — Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.1.