Shloka 86
Śiva-stavarāja: Upamanyu’s Preface and Initiation of the Śarva-Nāma Enumeration
Anuśāsana-parva 17
महामूर्धा महामात्रो महानेत्रो निशालय: । महान्तको महाकर्णो महोष्ठश्न महाहनुः
mahāmūrdhā mahāmātro mahānetro niśālayaḥ | mahāntako mahākarṇo mahauṣṭhaś ca mahāhanuḥ ||
Vāyu-deva sprach: „Er ist von gewaltigem Haupt und breitem Wuchs, mit großen Augen—er selbst ist die ‚Wohnstatt der Nacht‘, der Ort, an dem die Finsternis (Unwissenheit) sich auflöst. Er ist der Tod selbst für den Tod; großohrig, dicklippig und starkkieferig.“
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a chain of epithets to convey a theological idea: the described being is not merely powerful in form, but cosmically supreme—one in whom darkness (ignorance) is dissolved and who stands beyond even death (“Death to Death”).
Vāyu-deva is speaking and describing a mighty, transcendent figure through physical and metaphysical attributes—great head, eyes, ears, jaw—culminating in titles that signal cosmic sovereignty (the dissolver of darkness and the terminator of death).