Śatarudrīya
Śatarudrīya · śata-rudrīya, “the praise of the hundred Rudras”
The Śatarudrīya is the mantra of the Yajurveda chanted in praise of Bhagavān Śiva as Rudra. The Vāmana Purāṇa speaks of it three times. Kaśyapa and the maharshis were reciting it at the yajña of Daksha when Bhagavān Śiva came there. Bhagavān Vishṇu prescribed its japa (repeated chanting) to Hara as the last step of a great abhisheka (sacred bathing of the mūrti), by which the devas, who had lost the power to see Bhagavān Śiva, would be freed of their pāpa (sin) and have their sight given back. And Vena, freed at the Sthāṇu tīrtha, praised Bhagavān Śiva as the Śatarudrīya itself.
At the yajña of Daksha
When Bhagavān Śiva, Kapardī, came to the yajña of Daksha, the eight Vasus fled, the eleven Rudras left their places, and the Moon flew up to his own dwelling. Kaśyapa and the other maharshis, who were reciting the Śatarudrīya, stood with joined palms in great agitation.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5
The japa after the abhisheka
Once the whole world was shaken, and the devas went to Murāri, Bhagavān Vishṇu, to ask the cause. Bhagavān Vishṇu led them, with Indra, to Mount Mandara, the dwelling of Śrī Śaṅkara. But there the devas could not see Bhagavān Śiva and Devī Pārvatī, nor Nandīśvara, nor the bull. Bhagavān Vishṇu asked them how they could not see Mahādeva, seated right before them. He told them the reason: they had committed Śiva-droha (treachery against Śiva) by the garbha-havana of Bhavānī Mṛḍānī, and so Śūlapāṇi had taken away their jñāna and viveka (knowledge and discernment). To be cleansed of that pāpa they must purify their bodies by the taptakṛcchra vrata, and to see Bhagavān Śiva again they must perform an abhisheka to him.
Bhagavān Vishṇu gave the abhisheka in this order:
- A hundred and fifty pots of milk.
- Sixty-four pots of curd.
- Thirty-two pots of ghee.
- Sixteen pots of pañcagavya, the mixture of cow’s milk, curd, ghee, dung and urine.
- Eight pots of honey.
- Last, a bath with pure water, in twice as many pots as all of the above together.
- After the bath, rocana (gorocana) paste applied to the body of the Svāmī a hundred and eight times.
- Adornment with bhakti, with kuṅkuma and candana (sandal paste).
- Arcana with bilva leaves, lotuses, ummetta (dhattūra) flowers, suracandana, and mandāra, pārijāta and atimukta flowers.
- Dhūpa (incense) of agaru mixed with kāleya, the dark fragrant powder.
- Then japa of the Śatarudrīya mantra to Hara, in the pada-krama arrangement told in the Ṛgveda.
“If you do this,” Bhagavān Vishṇu said, “your pāpas will go, that Svāmī will be gracious, and he will give back the sight you have lost. There is no other way.”
The devas asked what the taptakṛcchra was, and Bhagavān Vishṇu taught it: three days of drinking hot water, three days of milk, three days of ghee and the last three days of living on air, with measures of twelve palas of water, eight of milk and six of ghee. Led by Indra, the devas kept the vrata and became free of pāpa. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu showed them the liṅga of Īśvara, as if lying on his own heart-lotus, and the devas performed the abhisheka to it with milk and the rest as prescribed, with gorocana, candana, bilva leaves and flowers, agaru dhūpa and the mahaushadhis (great herbs) as naivedya, and did japa of the hundred and eight names, pradakshiṇa and namaskāras.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 36
Bhagavān Śiva as the Śatarudrīya
At the Sthāṇu tīrtha in Kurukshetra, Vena was freed from his pāpa and given a divine body, and he sang the long stotra to Sthāṇu that is known as the Vena Stava. In it he says to Bhagavān Śiva: “You are Śikshā-hotṛ, the teacher of the knowledge of yajña. You are of the form of the Trisuparṇa and of the chandas (the Vedic metres). You are the Śatarudrīya in the Yajurveda; pure among the pure; auspicious among the bringers of auspiciousness.”
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 26
The phala
The Vāmana Purāṇa gives the phala of the Śatarudrīya japa with the abhisheka through Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s own words: those who perform it are freed of their pāpas, Bhagavān Śiva becomes gracious to them, and he gives back the sight they have lost.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 36
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 5, 36
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 26