Stotra · स्तोत्रStotra

Kalabhairava Ashtakam — verse 7

The laugh that cracks the cosmic egg, and the garland of skulls — the fiercest verse of the eight.

Kalabhairava Ashtakam verse 7edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

अट्टहासभिन्नपद्मजाण्डकोशसन्ततिं दृष्टिपातनष्टपापजालमुग्रशासनम् । अष्टसिद्धिदायकं कपालमालिकाधरं काशिकापुराधिनाथकालभैरवं भजे ॥

aṭṭahāsabhinnapadmajāṇḍakośasantatiṃ dṛṣṭipātanaṣṭapāpajālamugraśāsanam । aṣṭasiddhidāyakaṃ kapālamālikādharaṃ kāśikāpurādhināthakālabhairavaṃ bhaje ॥

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Meaning

Whose roaring laughter splits the whole succession of Brahma's egg-shells; at the fall of whose glance the net of sin is undone; of stern rule; giver of the eight attainments, wearer of the garland of skulls — 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

aṭṭahāsa has a doubled retroflex ṭṭ, held slightly longer than a single ṭ. The first line runs aṭṭahāsa-bhinna-padmaja-aṇḍa-kośa-santatiṃ, and the join padmaja + aṇḍa merges two vowels into jā. Both dṛṣṭi and pāta keep their retroflex ṣ and ṭ. aṣṭa-siddhi has the same ṣṭ cluster again, so the third line begins where the second left off, which makes it easier than it looks.

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

अट्टहासभिन्नaṭṭahāsabhinna: split by roaring laughter
पद्मजाण्डकोशसन्ततिम्padmajāṇḍakośasantatim: the succession of the lotus-born one's egg-shells(acc. sg.)
दृष्टिपातनष्टपापजालम्dṛṣṭipātanaṣṭapāpajālam: whose glance undoes the net of sin(acc. sg.)
उग्रशासनम्ugraśāsanam: of stern rule(acc. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.172
अष्टसिद्धिदायकम्aṣṭasiddhidāyakam: giver of the eight attainments(acc. sg.)
कपालमालिकाधरम्kapālamālikādharam: wearer of the garland of skulls(acc. sg.)
भजेbhaje: I worship(1st sg. pres. mid.)MW1899-CDSL p.743

Glosses are confirmed against a Sanskrit–English dictionary; the reference after each entry names the edition consulted.

Context

aṭṭahāsa is not a smile. It is the loud, open-mouthed laugh of the cremation ground, and here it is given cosmological force: it cracks the aṇḍa-kośa, the shell of the cosmic egg, and not one but the whole santati, the succession of them — universe after universe. padmaja, 'lotus-born', is Brahma, so the verse is putting the creator's own creation inside the shell that the laugh breaks. Set beside that, the second line is almost gentle: a glance falls, and the net of sin is gone. The hymn moves from the largest possible scale to a single look, and then names him ugra-śāsanaṃ, 'of stern rule', which pulls it back. The kapālamālā at the end is the deity's oldest mark. In the Shiva Purana narrative it starts as a single skull that will not leave his hand — Brahma's — and is only released at Kashi. Here it is already a garland and already an ornament.

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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