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Glossary Terms Defined

The text itself

श्रीशिवमहापुराण

Śrī Śiva Mahāpurāṇa

One of the eighteen Mahāpurāṇas, given in the form Vyāsa received it from Sanatkumāra. 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. 436 claims elsewhere on this site stand on one of its verses.

Open the table of contents
  • माहात्म्य

    The Glory of the Text

    7 adhyāyas
  • विद्येश्वरसंहिता

    The Saṃhitā of Vidyeśvara

    25 adhyāyas
  • रुद्रसंहिता — सृष्टिखण्ड

    The Saṃhitā of Rudra · Sṛṣṭi Khaṇḍa

    20 adhyāyas
  • रुद्रसंहिता — सतीखण्ड

    The Saṃhitā of Rudra · Satī Khaṇḍa

    43 adhyāyas

+ 4 more sections

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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.

Sadhana: Astra ✓ 27 Sources

Why a wrong Saptashati havan stops marriages and mangalik work

The speaker says people who do a Saptashati havan without knowing its rules become the cause of their own ruin: mangalik work in the home stops, marriages get stuck and are slow to happen afterwards, and the household's auspiciousness is destroyed. The reason he gives: when Agni is invoked in the fire — Agni who is Mother Svaha — and an astra mantra from the Kavach is put into her mouth as ahuti, her mouth is pierced; how then will she do you good? Without a guru's knowledge and adesh, offer only nourishing (paushtik) mantras; there is a further vidhi of which mantra goes to which Agni in the Kavach chapter and elsewhere. What may be offered freely 108 times is the first mantra of the Keelak, which he quotes as "विशुद्ध ज्ञान देहया त्रिवेदी दीप चक्षु से … श्रेय प्राप्ति निमित्ताय", and also Jayanti Mangala Kalika. He closes: do not do a Shatchandi with wrong havan, wrong path or wrong vidhi.

Festival: Savan ✓ 22 Sources

What should be done for the pitrs on the Shravan Amavasya?

The speaker says many subjects concerning the pitrs are already present on the channel. If one wishes to do something particularly on the Shravan Amavasya, then the pitrs are certainly pleased by the pujan of Bhagwan Shiva. Do rudrabhishek with milk. Do the "satachan" of Bhagwan. And if you wish to do it separately and in an extensive form for the pitrs, then do panchbali.

Mantra: Jayanti Mangala Kali ✓ 38 Sources

Cow-dung dhuni for the kuldevi with 21 ahutis of two mantras

The second part of the kuldevi prayog, the speaker says, is done at the puja place in a large clay vessel or a havan kund that is not copper or iron. Havan fire is not invoked: ordinary cow-dung cakes are lit with ghee or kapoor, and 21 ahutis each are given with two mantras — for the kuldevi and with the first mantra of the Argala Stotra, "Jayanti Mangala Kali". One may first offer ahutis for guru and Ganapati. The kuldevi ahutis use guggul only, with nothing else added; the Jayanti Mangala ahutis use guggul with the seeds of four or five split cardamoms and a little ghee. If one does not say svaha it is no problem, since this is a dhuni.

Deity: Vindhyavasini ✓ 46 Sources

Can Bhagavati Vindhyavasini be worshipped from a photograph?

Yes — the speaker says the worship of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini may certainly be performed, and that a photograph is quite enough for it.

Scripture: Durga Saptshati ✓ 78 Sources

No sakalya ahuti for uvacha lines and astra mantras in a Saptashati havan

The speaker says many people without diksha or adhikar perform havan with great force using all 700 mantras, mispronouncing as they go, unaware that the "uvacha" lines — such as "Markandeya uvacha" — and the astra mantras are never offered with sakalya. Such lines take ahuti only of ghrit, or of fruit placed on a paan leaf; there is a vidhan for this and ignoring it causes trouble. Wherever Bhagavati's weapons are named or she wields them, those astra mantras are never used for ahuti — for instance the line "शंख चक्र गदा श्रंग गृहीत प्रमायुधे…", where shankha, chakra, gada and shringa all make it an astra mantra.

Vigreh ✓ 61 Sources

About 12 hours in paper, 11 years in brass, 25 in silver and 100 in gold

Energy retention scales with the material: about 12 hours in a paper photograph, roughly 11 years in a mobile-consecrated brass idol, about 25 years in silver, and about 100 years in gold — with regular daily worship continually extending it.

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