उपनिषद् · Mantrikā 12
॥
देवनागरी
कालः प्राणश्च भगवान्मृत्युः शर्वो महेश्वरः । उग्रो भवश्च रुद्रश्च ससुरः सासुरस्तथा
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
kālaḥ prāṇaśca bhagavānmṛtyuḥ śarvo maheśvaraḥ | ugro bhavaśca rudraśca sasuraḥ sāsurastathā
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
कालः प्राणः च भगवान्kālaḥ prāṇaḥ ca bhagavāntime, breath and the Sovereign; kāla, prāṇa and the Bhagavān
मृत्युः शर्वः महेश्वरःmṛtyuḥ śarvaḥ maheśvaraḥdeath, Śarva, Maheśvara; mṛtyu, Śarva, the great lord
उग्रः भवः च रुद्रः चugraḥ bhavaḥ ca rudraḥ caUgra, Bhava and Rudra; Ugra, Bhava and Rudra
ससुरः सासुरः तथाsasuraḥ sāsuraḥ tathāwith the gods and with the asuras; with the suras and the asuras alike
अनुवाद
Time, breath and the Sovereign, death, Śarva, Maheśvara, Ugra, Bhava and Rudra — with the gods and with the asuras...
संस्करण
a27bed390d54 · प्रकाशित 29 जुल॰ 2026, 3:00:17 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
A roll of names, and it is of precisely the same kind as the litany of the Atharvaśiras.
Time, breath, death — three impersonal principles; Śarva, Maheśvara, Ugra, Bhava, Rudra — five names of Śiva, out of the eight which the Śatarudriya lists.
And it is added: sasuraḥ sāsuraḥ — “with the gods and with the asuras”. Both hosts, that is, attend Him.
This joining — gods and demons in one line — we read in the ninth mantra of the litany of the Rāma-tāpanī, where the asuras too were named among the states of being.
Note the order. First what has no face: time, breath, death. Then the names. Then the hosts.
The roll moves from the impersonal to the personal, and in this it is contrary to what today's reader expects. It is usually supposed that names are a step toward the nameless; here it is the reverse.
The same ladder we examined in the thirty-fourth section of the Atharvaśiras, where the chain led from the syllable Om to “the Bhagavān Maheśvara”.
The next verse will finish the count and name the Puruṣa and the waters.