Your guide to reliable sources of Indian Occult.
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Scriptures
32,990 verses
The received Sanskrit beside our own English and Hindi, verse by verse, with transliteration.
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10 guides
Everything reliable sources say on one topic, compiled and filterable — an index, not an opinion. In English and Hindi.
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916 terms
Every term the corpus uses, with its Devanagari, its gloss, and where it is spoken about.
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2 essays
Longer pieces where the argument is ours, with the sources it rests on named in place.
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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-
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
+ 4 more sections
The texts
Every work on the site
- Śrī Śiva Mahāpurāṇa श्रीशिवमहापुराण 229 chapters In progress
- Kulārṇava Tantra श्रीश्रीकुलार्णवतन्त्रम् 16 chapters In progress
- Tantrāloka तन्त्रालोकः 5 chapters In progress
- Tantrasāra तन्त्रसारः Releasing 28 Sep
- Bṛhat Tantrasāra बृहत्तन्त्रसारः Releasing 1 Oct
- Mantra Mahārṇava मन्त्रमहार्णवः Releasing 1 Oct
- Viśvakarma-prakāśa श्रीविश्वकर्मप्रकाशः Releasing 1 Nov
The guides
Every guide, by topic
- Amavasya Sadhana: What to Do on the New-Moon Tithi Every practice recommended for the Amavasya tithi — the daily core, pitru karma, protection from abhichar, the anushthan...
- Beginning Sadhana: How a New Sadhaka Should Start Where a completely new sadhaka should actually start — the three-tier structure of aarambhik, mukhya and anga sadhana, t...
- Bhadrapada Maas Sadhanas: The Month's Full Practice Calendar Every practice recommended for the Bhadrapada month — Ganesh Chaturthi and the ten-day Vinayak Navratri, the Krishna Jan...
- Bhairav Sadhana: The Definitive Guide Everything a householder actually needs in order to worship Bhairava — who the forms are and which one belongs in a home...
- Durga Sadhana: The Full Navratri Practice Guide Every practice recommended for Durga sadhana — the daily Navdurga sequence through Navratri, the 32-namavali that needs...
- Ganesh Sadhana: The Full Practice Guide Every practice recommended for Ganpati sadhana — why he comes first, the Sankatnashan and Ashtavinayak paths every sadha...
- Navratri Sadhana: The Complete Nine-Night Practice Guide Everything the discourses actually prescribe for the nine nights — when the kalash goes up, which chapter of Saptashati...
- Purnima Sadhana: What to Do on the Full-Moon Tithi Every practice recommended for the Purnima tithi — the daily core, the Purnima-to-Purnima cycles, each named full moon o...
- Tirtha Sadhana: The Definitive Guide to Sacred Places for Practice Where sadhana actually works, and why — the Shiva Purana's own tenfold ladder of places from a clean house up to a mount...
- Vidyeshwar Samhita: The Definitive Guide The first of the Shiv Mahapuran's seven Samhitas, set out chapter by chapter — why Shiva alone is worshipped in both lin...
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.
What is the Mahabhairav mool mantra and how many times should it be done?
The speaker says a Mahabhairav mantra, the mool mantra, was given earlier and every householder should do it without hesitation. It is available on the channel. Everyone should do that sadhana at least three times — whether an 11-day or a 21-day form — and should do a very large amount of japa of that mantra. All the Bhairavs are contained in it, but at its root chiefly is Batuk Bhairav.
Vindhyachal remedy for the doshas of an improperly done Navarna japa
The speaker says that after four or five years of consulting different people without benefit, the sadhika met, at a friend's Navchandi anushthan in Kolkata, some priests from Vindhyachal. On hearing the whole matter they told her the ill effects were due to the mantras she had done — the mantra's energy was misfiring and producing many kinds of dosha — and directed her to come to Vindhya kshetra, make kshama yachana before Mai, take darshan everywhere as far as possible, have a Saptashati path done once, do further kshama prarthana, and do japa of the kshama mantra, since Ma is very compassionate and will forgive.
Why did Shiva sever his son Ganesh's head?
To honour a curse. Mali and Sumali, two Rakshasa devotees of Shiva, had the boon that he would come and protect them; when Sur Narayan fought them, Shiva struck him with the Trishul and he died. His father Kashyap Rishi cursed Shiva that he too would one day kill his own son himself.
The Ravana story: Hanuman's one-letter change in the Argala mantra
The speaker tells the second account, from a Ramayana: Ravana was having a Chandika pujan of Bhagavati Tara performed with the Tara mantra embedded in the path. Hanuman, realising Ravana would become invincible on all sides if it were completed, took the form of a young Brahmin boy, a batuk, and pleaded with the aged Brahmins not to commit this wrong — if the rakshasa was to be ended, they should make a mistake. In the second mantra of the Argala, "jaya devi bhutartiharini", the syllable "ha" was changed to "ka", making it "bhutartikarini"; because the uccharan went wrong, Bhagavati grew angry and Ravana was destroyed. That, he says, is reckoned one of the causes.
What is the order between the Mahabhairav mantra and the Batuk Bhairav Hriday?
The speaker says the hriday, the hriday stotra of Batuk Bhairav, should certainly be made siddh. First do the mool mantra, which is the Mahabhairav mantra and contains all the Bhairavs; after that come forward and do the hriday of Batuk Bhairav. He says he is giving the vidhi for making the hriday siddh from the time of Makar Sankranti.
Even a brahmin with the sacred thread should not do it with pranava — see the Shiva Mahapurana
To a listener who says he is a brahmin with the sacred thread, the speaker says that even so it should not be done with pranava. Look through the Shiva Mahapurana without pranava, he says, and you will find out.
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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.
Manas Putra
मानस पुत्रA 'mind-born' son — created directly from a part of the creator's own being rather than through birth, as when Brahma, by Shiva's grace, created sages like Marichi, Bhrigu, Angira, and Narada from his eyes, heart, head, and other parts of himself.
Saptashloki
सप्तश्लोकीThe seven-verse gist of Durga Saptashati (700 mantras) — a compendium of its most powerful mantras.
Argala Stotra
अर्गला स्तोत्रA hymn recited as part of Durga Saptashati, invoking specific boons.
Dhuna
धूनाResin incense burned in a censer (Dhoopdani) to fumigate an entire premises, typically performed right after a mustard-seed sprinkling to clear negative energy before a protective binding.
Varnashrama
वर्णाश्रमThe traditional four-fold social-and-life-stage framework that determines a person's ritual eligibility — for instance, whether they perform Vedic Sandhya or, lacking that eligibility, undergo Tantrik initiation instead.
Nimbu Bali
निंबू बलिA lemon sacrifice offered as a remedy — cut into four pieces and thrown in four directions for body-cleansing or crossroads rites, or offered whole via mantra when given directly to a deity.
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