The Shiv Chalisa is a Hindi hymn to Shiva of forty chaupais set between dohas, and its opening doha, which salutes Ganesha, the son of Girija, names its poet, Ayodhyadas. Its opening chaupai, jai Girijapati deen dayala, hails Girija's consort as kind to the humble, and the poet's name returns in the line that follows the forty chaupais, where Ayodhyadas asks Shiva to take away all his sorrows.
It pictures Shiva with the moon shining on his brow and earrings of serpent hoods, the Ganga flowing from his head, his body smeared with ash and clad in tiger skin, the trident in his hand, and Parvati, the darling of Mother Maina, at his left, with Nandi, Ganesha and Kartikeya near. It recalls how he sent Kartikeya to slay Tarakasura, destroyed Jalandhara, fought Tripurasura and answered the penance of Bhagiratha; how he drank the poison that blazed up from the churning of the ocean and so was called Nilakantha; how Rama worshipped him and won Lanka for Vibhishana; and how, when Shiva hid one of Vishnu's thousand lotuses to test him, Vishnu offered his own lotus eye.
Devotees recite it daily, through the month of Shravan and at Maha Shivaratri, and its closing chaupais commend keeping the fast of trayodashi, the thirteenth lunar day, which is also the day of Pradosha worship. In this collection, Neelkanth Mahadev above Rishikesh and Nanjangud near Mysuru honour the Shiva who drank the poison, Rameswaram is where Rama is held to have worshipped Shiva, and through Shravan pilgrims carry Ganga water on foot to Baidyanath Dham at Deoghar.