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
<[email protected]> 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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