Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Kalabhairava Ashtakam — verse 3

The four things in his hands, and the dance he loves: the verse that fixes Bhairava's iconography.

Kalabhairava Ashtakam verse 3edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

शूलटङ्कपाशदण्डपाणिमादिकारणं श्यामकायमादिदेवमक्षरं निरामयम् । भीमविक्रमं प्रभुं विचित्रताण्डवप्रियं काशिकापुराधिनाथकालभैरवं भजे ॥

śūlaṭaṅkapāśadaṇḍapāṇimādikāraṇaṃ śyāmakāyamādidevamakṣaraṃ nirāmayam । bhīmavikramaṃ prabhuṃ vicitratāṇḍavapriyaṃ kāśikāpurādhināthakālabhairavaṃ bhaje ॥

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Meaning

In his hands the trident, the chisel-axe, the noose and the staff; the first cause; dark-bodied, the primal god, imperishable, free from all affliction; of terrible stride, the lord, who delights in the wondrous tāṇḍava — I worship Kala Bhairava, lord of the city of Kashi.

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

The first line is one long compound of four instruments followed by pāṇim: śūla-ṭaṅka-pāśa-daṇḍa-pāṇim ādi-kāraṇaṃ. Find those five joins before trying for speed. śyāma is 'dark' — the vowel is long, śyā, not śya. In vicitratāṇḍavapriyaṃ the ṇḍ is retroflex, made with the tongue curled back, which is what separates tāṇḍava from a dental tanḍava.

Repetitions: 1 · 3
Time: brahma muhurta, sandhya

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

शूलटङ्कपाशदण्डपाणिम्śūlaṭaṅkapāśadaṇḍapāṇim: holding trident, chisel-axe, noose and staff in hand(acc. sg.)
आदिकारणम्ādikāraṇam: the first cause(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.137
श्यामकायम्śyāmakāyam: dark-bodied(acc. sg.)
आदिदेवम्ādidevam: the primal god(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.137
अक्षरम्akṣaram: imperishable(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.3
निरामयम्nirāmayam: free from affliction(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.540
भीमविक्रमम्bhīmavikramam: of terrible stride

Context

This is the iconographic verse, and it names the daṇḍa last of the four, which is where the weight falls. The trident, the ṭaṅka and the noose are weapons Shiva shares with other fierce forms; the staff is Bhairava's own, and it is not a weapon of battle at all but the rod by which a magistrate assigns what is due. Daṇḍapāṇi — 'staff in hand' — is one of his commonest names, and the Shiva Purana gives him Kashi precisely as the place where he holds that office. ṭaṅka is worth pausing on. It is a chisel or a stonecutter's adze rather than a battle-axe, and translations that render it 'axe' lose the sense of an instrument that shapes by cutting away. nirāmayam, 'free from all affliction', describes the deity. It is not a statement about what reciting the verse does for anyone, and nothing on this page should be read that way.

Shadanga — the six limbs

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

devata: Kala Bhairava

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Dhyana (meditation)Protection (raksha)Peace (shanti)

Classified as Stotra — Devotional hymn literature — praise poetry rather than a Vedic formula. Basis for this classification.

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