Shloka 24
Muñjavān on Himavat: Maheśvara’s abode, Śiva-stuti, and sacrificial gold
Chapter 8
कपालमालिने चैव सुवर्णमुकुटाय च । महादेवाय कृष्णाय तयम्बकायानघाय च
kapālamāline caiva suvarṇamukuṭāya ca | mahādevāya kṛṣṇāya tryambakāyānaghāya ca
Saṃvarta said: “(Salutations) to the Lord who wears a garland of skulls, and to Him who bears a golden crown; to Mahādeva, to the dark-hued Lord, to the three-eyed One, and to the sinless One.” In this invocation, the speaker gathers seemingly contrasting epithets—terrifying and auspicious—to affirm Śiva’s all-encompassing sovereignty and purity, framing devotion as reverent recognition of the divine beyond fear and duality.
संवर्त उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches reverent devotion that embraces the fullness of the divine: Śiva is praised through both fearsome and regal epithets, suggesting that ultimate purity and protection can appear in forms that transcend ordinary categories of ‘terrible’ and ‘auspicious’.
Saṃvarta offers a compact hymn of salutations, invoking Śiva by a sequence of names and attributes (skull-garlanded, golden-crowned, three-eyed, sinless), establishing a devotional and ritual tone within the Ashvamedhika Parva context.