Your guide to reliable sources of Indian Occult.
Helping you understand difficult spiritual subjects through curated explanations, source-backed insights, and guided exploration via a structured knowledgebase.
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Four ways into the corpus
Every number below is counted from the database, not written down — so what a card promises is exactly what is behind it.
Scriptures
12,235 verses
The received Sanskrit beside our own English and Hindi, verse by verse, with transliteration.
Open →Guides
10 guides
Everything reliable sources say on one topic, compiled and filterable — an index, not an opinion. In English and Hindi.
Open →Glossary
742 terms
Every term the corpus uses, with its Devanagari, its gloss, and where it is spoken about.
Open →Blog
2 essays
Longer pieces where the argument is ours, with the sources it rests on named in place.
Open →The text itself
श्रीशिवमहापुराण
Śrī Śiva Mahāpurāṇa
One of the eighteen Mahāpurāṇas, given in the form Vyāsa received it from Sanatkumāra. We set out the received Sanskrit beside our own translation, verse by verse.
12,235 verses across 229 adhyāyas, each one set out in the received Sanskrit with a transliteration beside our own English and Hindi. A doubtful reading is printed as it stands and flagged, never quietly corrected. 264 claims elsewhere on this site stand on one of its verses.
Open the table of contents-
7 adhyāyas
माहात्म्य
The Glory of the Text
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25 adhyāyas
विद्येश्वरसंहिता
The Saṃhitā of Vidyeśvara
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20 adhyāyas
रुद्रसंहिता — सृष्टिखण्ड
The Saṃhitā of Rudra · Sṛṣṭi Khaṇḍa
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43 adhyāyas
रुद्रसंहिता — सतीखण्ड
The Saṃhitā of Rudra · Satī Khaṇḍa
+ 3 more sections
Master Question Registry
Top Questions Asked Across Sources
Notes our editors flagged as conceptually noteworthy while seeding the corpus. The set rotates once a day, not on every page load, so a note you find here is still here this evening.
Thirteen betel rolls to Kuber and five to Shiva, with the prayer kept to legitimate wealth
Offer 13 betel-leaf rolls to Kubera and 5 to Shiva, pray for legitimate wealth rather than acting on any dreams of buried treasure, then store the ritual items permanently in a wooden, sandalwood, or silver box and repeat the practice each Shravana.
Does Raal have a use in Tantra?
Yes — under the names Ashvakarna, Kasya, Dhoop Vriksha, Surya Dhoop, and Sarja Dhoop, Raal appears in kavachas and in texts like the Renuka Tantram, where burning it with mantra performs Sthana-bandhan.
What is the correct etiquette for darshan at Kamakhya?
At the Kamakhya shrine, unmarried visitors are traditionally advised against gazing directly at the core idol while circumambulating.
When should the standing wick (Khadi Batti) be used instead?
The standing wick is for two situations: worship of a fierce (Ugra) deity form, and a vow-bound ritual using an already-perfected (Siddha) mantra or hymn for a specific result. It is doubled by wrapping Kalawa around it.
Why is Loban called Shyama Dhoop, and what is its purpose in Tantra Shastra?
In Tantric texts, Loban is termed 'Shyama Dhoop', and its principal function is to attract negative energies and spirits rather than dispel them — used in advanced sadhanas and specific Tantric temples, not ordinary worship.
Unchanged up to Devatah, with the specific wish named right after Durga Preetyartham
The standard Viniyoga stays the same through 'Devatah'; the reciter then names their specific wish right after 'Durga Preetyartham', before calling it a Samput recitation.
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Explore by Topic
Twelve more of the most-covered deities, scriptures and topics, beyond the ones in the search bar above.
Glossary
Today’s Featured Terms
Terms referenced by at least 3 notes across the corpus, rotating daily.
Anushtubh
अनुष्टुभ्The most widely used meter in stutis, chanted in rhythmic units of eight syllables — the predominant meter of Shri Durga Saptashati; distorting it, even for emotional effect, corrupts the meaning and the fruit of recitation.
Mahasiddha
महासिद्धA great, fully accomplished master — a title applied to figures such as Lord Dattatreya and Baba Lokenath of Bengal.
Ganesh Chaturthi
गणेश चतुर्थीThe festival marking Lord Ganesha's birth.
Kaal Sarp Dosh
काल सर्प दोषAn astrological affliction where all planets fall between Rahu and Ketu in a birth chart, traditionally linked to a past-life offense against a snake and to persistent obstruction in life.
Bankasura
बाणासुरA demon slain by Lord Virabhadra (Sokha Baba) while terrorizing the islands toward Lakshadweep and Sri Lanka — like other slain demons in Tantric legend, he requested and was granted a place of worship, and is venerated today at a temple in Surajpur, Chhattisgarh with full sacrificial rites.
Vishwamitra
विश्वामित्रA sage born a Kshatriya who rose to Brahmarishi status through his own austerities, and recurs across Puranic narratives.
Why this site is different
Not more occult content. A route to the sources it is supposed to rest on.
Nothing published without a source
Every note is stored against the source it came from, so an uncited claim cannot exist here — not as a policy we promise to keep, but as a rule the database enforces.
Interpretation kept apart from attribution
Where a claim rests on scripture, the passage is named and graded — stated in the text, inferred from it, customary, or contradicted by it. "The text does not say this" is a sentence we print.
Entities linked as a system
Deities, concepts, scriptures, rituals and traditions are tagged and cross-linked, so a topic can be followed outward instead of read as one isolated page.
The text itself, not only writing about it
Received scripture is set out verse by verse in the original beside our own translation, so you can check any claim against the line it is supposed to rest on.