[INDOLOGY] Gayatri mantras to time

[Jean-Luc Chevillard]

Dear Harry and others,

I do not know whether this is relevant to Harry's request but in the 
Tēvāram, I see at least 11 occurrences of kālakālar (or other variant forms)


See for instance this one, from Tēvāram 2-7__(3), by Campantar

https://www.ifpindia.org/digitaldb/site/digital_tevaram/U_TEV/VMS2_007.HTM#p2

காலகாலர் "Civaṉ is himself the god who killed the god of death."


I hope this is useful

Best wishes

-- Jean-Luc

P.S. the quotation is from Digital Tēvāram

https://www.ifpindia.org/digitaldb/site/digital_tevaram

On 10/22/2025 9:50 AM, Nataliya Yanchevskaya via INDOLOGY 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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