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

[Harry Spier]

Thank you Madhav and Tim Lubin who just answered offlist. Also I  see from
an old discussion that pracodayāt is a 3rd person causative subjunctive
described in Whitney's grammar section 1043.

Harry Spier


On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 11:12 PM Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:

> If the word before the verb is a vocative, then the verb is not likely to
> be in 3rd person.
>
> 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 8:05 PM Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Madhav pointed out that* tan naḥ **kāla-bhairava pracodayāt *is also
>> wrong. I had thought that in  gāyatrī  mantras the word before pracodayāt
>> could be either in the nominative or the vocative case but I see looking
>> at my list of gāyatrī mantras that it is always in the nominative case.
>>
>> But I'm not clear why the vocative case is not grammatically also
>> acceptable there.
>> I.e. tan naḥ kāla-bhairava pracodayāt "O Kala-bhairava, may we be
>> impelled to that".
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Harry Spier
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 10:23 PM Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> 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
>>>> > > > https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>>>> > >
>>>>
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>>>
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