[INDOLOGY] Gayatri mantras to time

[Harry Spier]

Thank you to everyone who replied online and to the individual who
replied offline who pointed to Īśvaragītā 5.13cd as an occurance of
kālakāla .

1) Everyone agrees that kālakāla in line one means "death of death".
Nataliya Yanchevskaya: In the Purāṇas, it's more like "Slayer of
Death" or "Death of Death."
Jean-Luc Chevillard from the Tevaram: "Civaṉ is himself the god who
killed the god of death."
Lubomir Ondracka:  understand Śiva's epithet Kālakāla as a synonym for Kālāntaka

2) Nataliya Yanchevskaya asked what the source of this mantra is.  Its
on hundred of youtube channels but I couldn't find it elsewhere.  What
that means, who knows.  Does that mean its a modern creation? A few
years ago I was researching a gayatri mantra to Dhanvantari also found
on the internet.  When several different major Dhanvantari temples
were contacted in India, none of them used that gayatri.

Thanks,
Harry Spier




Harry Spier

On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 12:00 PM Lubomír Ondračka <ondracka at ff.cuni.cz> wrote:
>
> I understand Śiva's epithet Kālakāla as a synonym for Kālāntaka,
> referring to the myth in which Śiva killed the god Yama (= Kāla).
> L.
>
> On 22/10/2025 00:13, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY 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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