[INDOLOGY] Fwd: Gayatri mantras to time

[Madhav Deshpande]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu>
Date: Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Gayatri mantras to time
To: Nataliya Yanchevskaya <markandeia at gmail.com>


This is perhaps similar to Kāleśvara. The Śiva in Ujjain is called
Mahākāleśvara.

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]


On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 12:50 AM Nataliya Yanchevskaya via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Harry (if I may),
> I don't think you'll find any Gayatri mantra specifically dedicated to
> time, though time may come up in various mantras to Bhairava (like this
> one), Rudra, or Shiva.
>
> I wonder what the source of this particular mantra is?
>
> Regarding kālakāla: It first appears in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (6.2 and
> 6.16) as an epithet of Rudra. However, Olivelle's edition has *kālakāra*
> instead – "the maker of time."
> I suspect *kālakāla* may be a corruption that later shows up in the Śiva
> Purāṇa as an epithet of Śiva.
>
> So in the Upanishadic context, I'd definitely translate *kālakāla* as
> "Time of Time" (meaning Rudra is the lord of time, or "time beyond time").
>
> In the Purāṇas, it's more like "Slayer of Death" or "Death of Death." As
> far as I remember, there is a Purāṇic story explaining this epithet where
> Shiva burns Kāla—who's clearly Yama, the god of death.
> Generally speaking, unless I'm specifically working with Purāṇic
> mythology, I prefer the translation "Time of Time."
>
> "Death of Time" is, of course, grammatically possible, but it ascribes to
> Rudra/Shiva/Bhairava a function he does not possess.
>
> Best wishes,
> Nataliya
>
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2025 at 7:15 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear list members,
>>
>> 1) I was asked to find any gayatri mantras to time or that mention
>> time. Does anyone know of any or have ideas about where to look.  I've
>> looked in GRETIL and the Muktbodha searchable library but didn't find
>> any.
>>
>> )In the following Gayatri mantra from the internet
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCIGR0cpiyc
>>
>>  oṁ kāla-kālāya vidmahe
>> kālātītāya dhīmahi
>> tan no kāla-bhairavaḥ pracodayāt
>>
>> How would you translate kāla-kāla in the first line. Someone suggested
>> "death of time".  Is that a possible translation.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Harry Spier
>>
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