Chanda Bhairava Mantra
ॐ ह्रीं चण्डभैरवाय नमःIn Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.
Who Chanda Bhairava is
Chanda Bhairava is the third of the eight Bhairavas in the classical Ashta Bhairava sequence, emerging after Ruru and before Krodha. The name Chanda, from the root that yields caṇḍa, denotes fierce heat, sudden intensity and the ungoverned blaze of impulse. Agamic descriptions give him a tawny or flaming-red complexion, hair that rises like smoke, and attributes that include the sword, trident, skull-cup and goad; his vahana is recorded in several paddhatis as a peacock. Stationed commonly in the southern or south-eastern quarter of the mandala, he embodies the raw surge of wrath before it is either squandered or steadied. Tradition therefore places him at the precise point where anger first becomes visible as a force, yet the texts never convert that placement into a promise of mastery for the one who utters his name.
The Peacock and the Sudden Blaze
A concise episode preserved in the Kriya portions of the Rudrayamala and echoed in the Bhairava section of the Sharada Tilaka tells that when the eight forms issued from the original Bhairava, the third arose in a burst of heat so sharp that the surrounding air shimmered. A peacock, sacred to the war-god yet restless under that heat, spread its train and refused to flee; the bird’s refusal fixed the new Bhairava’s vahana and sealed his name as Chanda. The same passage notes that the peacock’s cry, harsh and abrupt, matched the deity’s own suddenness, so that later dhyana verses still call him “the one whose coming is like the peacock’s scream at noon.” No elaborate narrative of combat or curse is attached; the myth remains a brief charter of temperament and mount, sufficient to distinguish Chanda from the ox-mounted Ruru who precedes him and the eagle- or garuda-linked Krodha who follows. Ritual manuals simply restate the episode when they assign him his quarter and his red hue.
The mantra, in six scripts
The seed mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.
- ॐ
- oṃ — the open primordial syllable
- ह्रीं
- hrīṃ — the hrīṃ seed of radiant shakti
- चण्डभैरवाय
- caṇḍabhairavāya — to Chanda Bhairava (dative)
- नमः
- namaḥ — salutation
The syllable people get wrong
The retroflex ṇḍ cluster in चण्ड is almost always flattened to a dental “nd,” so that Caṇḍa becomes the everyday English “Chanda.” The tongue must curl back for the ṇ; failure to do so collapses the name’s internal heat into a softer, ordinary sound that no longer matches the fierce caṇḍa the texts intend.
When Chanda Bhairava is chanted
Weekday. Monday
Questions
Have your chart read before you decide
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
- Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
- He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
- Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Related
Chanting is yours to do. Some things are performed for you.
Where a matter carries real weight — an examination that decides a course, a performance, a child whose studies have stalled — devotees sponsor the homa alongside their own practice. Performed for you and any family members you name, at our Yagna Ashram, in your name and gotra, on a muhurta calculated from your chart, and telecast live so you can watch it done for you.