Pauranic · पौराणिकDhyana shloka

Kapalamochana — Shiva Purana 3.9.58-59

The skull that would not fall anywhere else falls at Kashi, and the sin that followed him everywhere ends there.

Shiva Purana, Shatarudra Samhita 3.9.58-59edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

विधेः कपालं नामुञ्चत् करमत्यन्तदुःसहम् । परस्य भ्रमतः क्वापि तत्काश्यां क्षणतोऽपतत् ॥ ५८ ॥ शूलिनो ब्रह्मणो हत्या नापैति स्म च या क्वचित् । सा काश्यां क्षणतो नष्टा तस्मात्सेव्या हि काशिका ॥ ५९ ॥

vidheḥ kapālaṃ nāmuñcat karamatyantaduḥsaham । parasya bhramataḥ kvāpi tatkāśyāṃ kṣaṇato'patat ॥ 58 ॥ śūlino brahmaṇo hatyā nāpaiti sma ca yā kvacit । sā kāśyāṃ kṣaṇato naṣṭā tasmātsevyā hi kāśikā ॥ 59 ॥

Read in another script

Meaning

The skull of the creator, unbearable beyond measure, did not release his hand as the supreme one wandered anywhere at all — yet at Kashi it fell from him in an instant. And the brahmin-slaying that never left the trident-bearer anywhere was destroyed at Kashi in a moment. Therefore Kashi is to be resorted to.

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

nāmuñcat is na + amuñcat, 'did not release' — the imperfect of muc with the negative merged into a long ā. atyantaduḥsaham is ati + anta + duḥsaham, 'unbearable beyond measure'. nāpaiti is na + apaiti, 'does not go away'. kāśyāṃ is the locative of kāśī, kā-śyāṃ in two syllables. sevyā is the gerundive, 'to be resorted to, to be served'.

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

विधेःvidheḥ: of the creator (Brahma)(gen. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.967
कपालम्kapālam: skull(nom. sg. n.)MW1899-CDSL p.250
अमुञ्चत्amuñcat: released, let go(3rd sg. impf.)MW1899-CDSL p.820
अत्यन्तदुःसहम्atyantaduḥsaham: unbearable beyond measure(nom. sg. n.)
भ्रमतःbhramataḥ: of the one wandering(pres. part. gen. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.769
क्षणतःkṣaṇataḥ: in a moment(abl. adv.)MW1899-CDSL p.324
अपतत्apatat: it fell

Context

This is the end of the Mahavrata and the reason Kashi holds the place it does in this literature. The structure of both verses is the same and is deliberate: everywhere else, nothing; at Kashi, instantly. kvāpi against kāśyāṃ, na apaiti against naṣṭā, and kṣaṇataḥ — 'in a moment' — repeated in each verse. The place where the skull fell is remembered as Kapālamocana, the release of the skull, and verse 56 of this chapter names it. It is still a tīrtha in Varanasi. Verse 60 adds that remembering it is enough, which is the Purana extending the geography into memory. tasmāt sevyā hi kāśikā — 'therefore Kashi is to be resorted to' — is the conclusion the chapter was built to reach. It is worth noticing that the argument is not that Kashi is holy in the abstract. It is that a specific thing happened there to a specific deity, and the city's standing rests on that event. Bhairava does not leave afterwards. Verse 62 has him take his station facing Kapālamocana, which is where the office granted in 3.8.50 begins to be exercised.

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

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Dhyana (meditation)Knowledge (jnana)

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

← All mantras

Related mantras

VedicMantra

Purnamadah Purnamidam

The fullness verse — take fullness from fullness and fullness remains. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.1.1.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.1.1

VedicMantra

Isha Vasyam Idam Sarvam

The opening verse of the Isha Upanishad — all this is pervaded by the Lord; enjoy what is left over.

Isha Upanishad 1

VedicSukta (hymn)

Namaste Rudra Manyava — opening of the Shri Rudram

The first line of the Shri Rudram, the central Vedic hymn to Rudra — Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.1.