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Mantra · The Vedic couplet to Shiva's southern face, fearsome and not fearsome

Aghora Mantra

अघोरेभ्योऽथ घोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्यः । सर्वेभ्यः सर्वशर्वेभ्यो नमस्ते अस्तु रुद्ररूपेभ्यः ॥

Also known as Aghorebhyo'tha Ghorebhyo

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

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What the Aghora Mantra is

The Aghora mantra, the Vedic salutation that opens with aghorebhyo'tha ghorebhyo, is the mantra of Aghora, the south-facing aspect of Shiva, in the set of five called the Pancha Brahma mantras. It belongs to the Krishna Yajurveda: the tenth book of the Taittiriya Aranyaka, also read as the Mahanarayana Upanishad, gives the five in sequence, with Aghora coming after Vamadeva and before Tatpurusha. The mantra is a single couplet. Its first line climbs in three steps, from the forms that are not fearsome to the fearsome and on to those beyond the fearsome; its second line gathers all of them under the name Sharva and bows to them as forms of Rudra. The Rudra nyasas recite it before the Rudram, and it is followed here by the dhyana verse that the Mahanyasa sets beside it, picturing the southern face. The text is printed without Vedic accent marks; tradition learns the svaras, and mantras of this kind, from a teacher.

The dark youth who appeared to Brahma

The Puranas explain the five faces of Shiva through five ages of creation, and they tie the southern face to a dark appearance. According to the Linga Purana, Aghora appeared to Brahma as a youth dark in colour. The Shiva Purana tells the episode with water covering everything and Brahma unsure how to create; four dark sons, Krishna, Krishnashikha, Krishnasya and Krishnakanthadhrik, appear with Aghora and initiate Brahma into the discipline it calls the Ghora yoga. The texts do not agree on the number of that kalpa: one passage of the Vayu Purana counts it as the thirty-second. The ritual texts keep the same colour: the dhyana verse printed here, which the Mahanyasa recites directly after the mantra in its nyasa of the five faces, makes the southern face as dark as the Puranic youth. In the Mahanyasa the face is then saluted with the line om namo bhagavate rudraya dakshinanga mukhaya namah, a bow to the southern face of Rudra.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiअघोरेभ्योऽथ घोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्यः । सर्वेभ्यः सर्वशर्वेभ्यो नमस्ते अस्तु रुद्ररूपेभ्यः ॥

Tamilஅகோரேப்யோத கோரேப்யோ கோரகோரதரேப்யஃ । ஸர்வேப்யஃ ஸர்வஶர்வேப்யோ நமஸ்தே அஸ்து ருத்ரரூபேப்யஃ ॥

Teluguఅఘోరేభ్యోఽథ ఘోరేభ్యో ఘోరఘోరతరేభ్యః । సర్వేభ్యః సర్వశర్వేభ్యో నమస్తే అస్తు రుద్రరూపేభ్యః ॥

Kannadaಅಘೋರೇಭ್ಯೋಽಥ ಘೋರೇಭ್ಯೋ ಘೋರಘೋರತರೇಭ್ಯಃ । ಸರ್ವೇಭ್ಯಃ ಸರ್ವಶರ್ವೇಭ್ಯೋ ನಮಸ್ತೇ ಅಸ್ತು ರುದ್ರರೂಪೇಭ್ಯಃ ॥

Malayalamഅഘോരേഭ്യോഽഥ ഘോരേഭ്യോ ഘോരഘോരതരേഭ്യഃ । സര്വേഭ്യഃ സര്വശര്വേഭ്യോ നമസ്തേ അസ്തു രുദ്രരൂപേഭ്യഃ ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationaghorebhyo'tha ghorebhyo ghoraghoratarebhyaḥ | sarvebhyaḥ sarvaśarvebhyo namaste astu rudrarūpebhyaḥ ||

“To the forms that are not terrible, to the terrible ones, and to those more terrible than the terrible; to all of them, to every form of Sharva: salutations to you, to the forms of Rudra.”

अघोरेभ्योऽथ: aghorebhyo'tha — to the not-fearsome ones, and then
घोरेभ्यो: ghorebhyo — to the fearsome ones
घोरघोरतरेभ्यः: ghoraghoratarebhyaḥ — to those more fearsome than the fearsome
सर्वेभ्यः: sarvebhyaḥ — to all
सर्वशर्वेभ्यो: sarvaśarvebhyo — to every form of Sharva
नमस्ते: namaste — salutation to you
अस्तु: astu — may it be
रुद्ररूपेभ्यः: rudrarūpebhyaḥ — to the forms of Rudra

Aghora Mantra lyrics in full

The mantra is given as chanted in the Rudra nyasas, followed by the dhyana verse of the southern face. The Taittiriya Aranyaka itself, as Sayana comments on it, reads sarvatah sharva sarvebhyo in the second line.

All 2 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Aghora Mantra PDFAll 2 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

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Mantra 1

अघोरेभ्योऽथ घोरेभ्यो घोरघोरतरेभ्यः ।
सर्वेभ्यः सर्वशर्वेभ्यो नमस्ते अस्तु रुद्ररूपेभ्यः ॥

To the forms that are not terrible, to the terrible ones, and to those more terrible than the terrible; to all of them, to every form of Sharva: salutations to you, to the forms of Rudra.

Dhyanam 1

कालाभ्रभ्रमराञ्जनद्युतिनिभं व्यावृत्तपिङ्गेक्षणं कर्णोद्भासितभोगिमस्तकमणिप्रोद्भिन्नदंष्ट्राङ्कुरम् ।
सर्पप्रोतकपालशुक्तिशकलव्याकीर्णताशेखरं वन्दे दक्षिणमीश्वरस्य वदनं चाथर्वनादोदयम् ॥

I bow to the southern face of the Lord, dark as a rain cloud, a black bee or collyrium, with rolling tawny eyes, its ears lit by the jewels on serpents' hoods, its fangs breaking forth. Its crest is strewn with skulls strung on serpents and with pieces of shell, and from it rises the sound of the Atharva Veda.

The syllable people get wrong

In aghorebhyo'tha (aghorebhyo 'tha) the avagraha marks the a of atha, 'then', merged into the o before it, so the word is said aghorebhyo-tha with no extra syllable, and the th is an aspirated t as in 'hothouse', never the English th of 'the'.

When the Aghora Mantra is chanted

Weekday. Monday

Questions

It is one compound in the dative plural: ghora, fearsome, joined to ghoratara, more fearsome, so the word means 'to those more fearsome than the fearsome'. The first line moves in three steps, aghora, ghora and ghoraghoratara, so that the salutation reaches Rudra's gentle forms, his fierce forms and the forms beyond fierceness. The second line widens it again with sarvebhyah, 'to all', and sarvasharvebhyah, 'to every form of Sharva', an old Vedic name of Rudra.

Both readings are old. The text of the Taittiriya Aranyaka as the commentator Sayana explains it reads sarvatah sharva sarvebhyo, and he takes sarvatah to mean 'in every place and at every time', with sharva as a direct address to Rudra. Several manuscripts of the Aranyaka, and the Laghunyasa and Mahanyasa as chanted before the Rudram, have sarvebhyah sarvasharvebhyo, the form printed here. The sense, a bow to every form of Rudra, is the same in both.

It is the dhyana, or meditation verse, of the southern face, which the Mahanyasa recites directly after the mantra when the five faces of Shiva are invoked in turn. It pictures the face as dark as a rain cloud, a black bee or collyrium, with rolling tawny eyes, fangs breaking forth, serpents' jewels lighting the ears and a crest strewn with skulls. Its last words tie this face to the Atharva Veda, just as the verse of the eastern face, said before it, ties Tatpurusha to the Sama Veda.

Its main place is the nyasa said before the Rudram, in which the worshipper's hands and body are consecrated with mantras. In the Mahanyasa the five Brahma mantras are first placed on the fingers, Aghora on the middle finger; then on the body from the feet upward, Aghora on the heart, between Vamadeva on the thighs and Tatpurusha on the face; and then as the five faces, Aghora as the southern one. Earlier still, the Pashupata Shaivas used the five Brahma mantras in their own discipline.

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