[INDOLOGY] Gayatri mantras to time [gayatri mantras on the internet]

[Madhav Deshpande]

Dear Harry,

"no kāla..." and "kāla-bhairava pracodayāt" are both grammatically
incorrect, but the internet versions cannot be trusted for accuracy in any
case.

Madhav

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 2:58 PM Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> An additional note:
>
> It appears on the internets dozens of time with this sandhi mispelling:
> oṁ kāla-kālāya vidmahe
> kālātītāya dhīmahi
> tan no kāla-bhairavaḥ pracodayāt
>
> but as far as I can see only once spelled/pronounced correctedly
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGdy6FOZ4Yc
> oṁ kāla-kālāya vidmahe
> kālātītāya dhīmahi
> tan naḥ kāla-bhairava pracodayāt
>
> Evidence this is a modern even internet age creation?
>
> Harry Spier
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 4:05 PM Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > 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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> > > > INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
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> > >
>
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