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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Every number below is counted from the database, not written down — so what a card promises is exactly what is behind it.
Scriptures
25,524 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
927 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.
Open →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.
12,062 verses across 225 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. 435 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
The texts
Every work on the site
- Śrī Śiva Mahāpurāṇa श्रीशिवमहापुराण 225 chapters
- Kulārṇava Tantra श्रीश्रीकुलार्णवतन्त्रम् Releasing 17 Sep
- Tantrāloka तन्त्रालोकः Releasing 18 Sep
- Tantrasāra तन्त्रसारः Releasing 28 Sep
- Bṛhat Tantrasāra बृहत्तन्त्रसारः Releasing 20 Sep
- Mantra Mahārṇava मन्त्रमहार्णवः Releasing 1 Oct
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 should be done if an offence has been committed?
In such a state, he says, first of all there will be Shiva ji's pujan. The kavach and the rest will be given a fresh abhishek. Do at least five malas or eleven malas of the kshama mantra, and go on doing that japa for eleven days or twenty-one days, until there is peace of mind. Sins are quelled a great deal by havan and the like, so the more you practise as the Agam-ukta vidhan prescribes — and if there is havan, that is very good — the sooner you will be freed of that sin and dosha.
Does performing a ritual or sacrifice (Bali) to destroy an enemy attract a karmic flaw (Dosha)?
Yes — whether an enemy is destroyed through a sacrificial offering, a targeted mantra resolve, or any other ritual means, it attracts a karmic flaw, since even Lord Ramachandra and Devraj Indra had to visit Mahakali to resolve the karmic consequences of killing enemies.
Why must Havan be continued regularly instead of stopped once trouble eases?
Stopping oblation early, once symptoms ease, leaves the underlying dark influence unresolved and gives it an opening to resurface — regular oblation, ideally weekly, must continue until the influence is fully cleared.
Which shloka is missing from the Gita Press Saptashati kavach?
If it were not so, he asks, why would Bhagavati say in the kavach that such-and-such a shakti should protect a friend, protect our gotra — she would not say it. In the Saptashati that the Gita Press Gorakhpur people read, in the kavach path, it has not been said for the protection of a kanya. The shloka, as he recites it, is "धनम धन सुरक्षित कौमारी कन्या काम तथा रक्षण में सर्व गात्रणी दुर्गा दुर्गा पहारिणी" — it is absent from it. The shloka exists, he says; those people have not given it. They have kept only the protection of the son, that the mother should protect the son.
What are parivara devatas, and what role do they play for a sadhaka?
Parivara devatas are the attendant deities in a primary devata's retinue; the author states that when a sadhaka builds sufficient spiritual power through practice, these attendant deities may test or visit the practitioner before the main deity chooses to manifest directly or indirectly.
What happens to a festival where a death occurred on that day?
Scripturally it is three years — where a death occurs during a festival period, that festival is not observed for three years and may be observed from the fourth. The local custom of waiting until someone is born on that day is a separate convention; ask your own priest which applies.
Explore
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.
Bhagatvaal
भगतवालA village-level folk healer or exorcist (Bhagat) who diagnoses and treats spirit-related afflictions.
Nivritti Marga
निवृत्ति मार्गThe path of complete detachment from the material world, seeking only Shivaloka or Moksha.
Havan
हवनA fire oblation ritual in which offerings are made into consecrated flames — its offerings and rules vary by occasion and text.
Mahabhairav
महाभैरवA supreme, greater form of Lord Bhairava.
Svastivacana
स्वस्तिवाचनThe recitation of auspicious verses performed after the initial lamp-lighting rituals but before Sankalpa — sacred-thread wearers recite Vedic mantras like 'Aa No Bhadrah', while others recite Puranic verses such as Ganapati's twelve names and 'Shuklambaradharam Devam'.
Pind Daan
पिंड दानThe offering of rice balls (Pind) to a deceased ancestor during Shradh, performed to nourish them and support their liberation.
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