Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Kalabhairava Ashtakam — verse 4

The verse where the terrifying deity is called tender to his devotees, and a belt of small gold bells is heard at his waist.

Kalabhairava Ashtakam verse 4edition

Kaal Bhairav ·Shiva

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

भुक्तिमुक्तिदायकं प्रशस्तचारुविग्रहं भक्तवत्सलं स्थिरं समस्तलोकविग्रहम् । निक्वणन्मनोज्ञहेमकिङ्किणीलसत्कटिं काशिकापुराधिनाथकालभैरवं भजे ॥

bhuktimuktidāyakaṃ praśastacāruvigrahaṃ bhaktavatsalaṃ sthiraṃ samastalokavigraham । nikvaṇanmanojñahemakiṅkiṇīlasatkaṭiṃ kāśikāpurādhināthakālabhairavaṃ bhaje ॥

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Meaning

Giver of both enjoyment and release; of excellent and lovely form; tender toward his devotees, unmoving, having the whole world for his body; at whose waist a girdle of golden bells gleams and sweetly rings — 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

bhuktimuktidāyakaṃ: bhukti and mukti differ only in the first consonant, so keep the aspirated bh distinct from the plain m. The third line is the hardest in the hymn. nikvaṇat-manojña-hema-kiṅkiṇī-lasat-kaṭiṃ — six pieces. kiṅkiṇī is the small bell; the ṅ is the velar nasal, made at the back of the mouth where a k is made. lasat-kaṭiṃ, 'waist that gleams', closes it.

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

भुक्तिमुक्तिदायकम्bhuktimuktidāyakam: giver of enjoyment and of liberation(acc. sg.)
प्रशस्तचारुविग्रहम्praśastacāruvigraham: of excellent and lovely form(acc. sg.)
भक्तवत्सलम्bhaktavatsalam: tender toward his devotees(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.743
स्थिरम्sthiram: steady, unmoving(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.1264
समस्तलोकविग्रहम्samastalokavigraham: whose body is all the worlds(acc. sg.)
निक्वणत्nikvaṇat: ringing, sounding(pres. part.)
मनोज्ञहेमकिङ्किणीmanojñahemakiṅkiṇī: lovely golden little bells

Context

bhukti and mukti together is a claim the hymn makes deliberately. Much devotional literature asks the devotee to choose between the world and release; this verse refuses the choice and names Bhairava the giver of both. The same line does something stranger with vigraha, which appears twice in two different senses: praśasta-cāru-vigrahaṃ, 'of excellent and lovely form', and samasta-loka-vigraham, 'whose form is all the worlds'. A personal body and a cosmic one, asserted in the same breath. Then the third line drops the register entirely and listens: a belt of small gold bells at the waist, gleaming and ringing. Nikvaṇat is a present participle — the bells are sounding as you read it. After two lines of metaphysics the hymn puts a sound in the room, and that shift is the reason this verse is often the one people remember.

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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