శ్రీ మహాకాల స్తోత్రమ్

Bhargava's hymn to Mahakala, and it opens with the moment rather than with praise: having seen the god Mahakala, the great lord with Kalika at his side, Bhargava fell to the ground like a staff. What he then says is one of the starker Shiva descriptions in this collection, and the Kalika of the first line stays in it throughout: of a light like the fire at the end of the age, four-armed, attended by Kalika, holding the skull and the khatvanga and the gestures of boon and fearlessness — I praise the endless Mahakala. Fifteen verses in that register, without softening and without a domestic fruit-list at the end, which sets it apart from most of the Shiva hymns collected here.