Kalagni Rudra Upanishad

Kalagni Rudra
A text discusses the Tripundra lines on the forehead
Devanagari	कालाग्निरुद्र
IAST	Kālāgni Rudrā
Title means	Shiva (composite of Agni and Rudra)
Type	Shaiva
Linked Veda	Krishna Yajurveda
Chapters	2

The Kalagni Rudra Upanishad (Sanskrit: कालाग्निरुद्र - उपनिषत्), is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism, written in the Sanskrit language. It is attached to the Krishna Yajurveda. It is one of 14 Shaiva Upanishads.

The Upanishad is a discourse by Kalagni Rudra (Shiva) to sage Sanatkumara on the Tripundra, the Shaiva sectarian tilaka consisting of three horizontal lines of sacred ash on the forehead. The allegorical significance of the "three ash lines", states Deussen, is that the tradition sees them as streaks of three Vedic fires, three audible syllables of AUM, three Guṇas, three worlds, three Atmans, three Vedas and three aspects of Shiva. The text extols the Tripundra and tells about the procedure for applying Vibhuti (sacred ash) as Tripundra on various parts of the body with the associated mantras and rites.

Klaus Klostermaier classifies the Kalagni Rudra Upanishad with the Bhasmajabala Upanishad, the Rudrakshajabala Upanishad, the Brihajjabala Upanishad and the Akshamalika Upanishad as Shaiva texts that explain sectarian symbolism in Shaivism.

Kalagni, or Kala-Agni, means "fire that is time". Rudra is the prime mover and destroyer of material world as well as time. Together, states Kramrisch, Kalagni-Rudra connote the principles and time as relentless divine manifestation of that where "at the end all the universe is gathered". Kalagni-Rudra is an epithet of Shiva, related to Bhairava, one who creates everything from fire and then burns everything – gods, men and demons – to ashes.