ଶ୍ରୀ ମହାକାଲଭୈରଵ ସ୍ତୋତ୍ରମ୍

Sixteen verses in which the name Mahākāla is repeated until it becomes the metre. The first three verses use it four times each and close every one with the same salutation, so the effect is closer to a drumbeat than to description: great time, great body, lord of the world; great god, great lord, great Rudra; great knowledge, dispeller of darkness. The middle verses leave that pattern for the older Vedic names of Rudra, saluting him as Bhava, Śarva, Rudra and lord of creatures, and then work through the five faces in their proper order, Sadyojāta, Tatpuruṣa, Aghora, Vāmadeva and Īśāna, ending below with Kālāgnirudra. The last verse before the phalaśruti gathers the whole into a single mantra, joining hrīṁ to the form of māyā, svāhā to the completed formula, and closing on so'haṁ haṁsaḥ.