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Home › Mantras › Damodarashtakam
Vishnu Damodarashtakam: Yashoda tying the tearful child Krishna to a wooden mortar in Gokula, a broken curd pot nearby
Yashoda binding the child Krishna to the mortar, the twin arjuna trees behind
Mantra · Eight verses to the child Krishna tied by Yashoda to a mortar

Damodarashtakam

नमामीश्वरं सच्चिदानन्दरूपं लसत्कुण्डलं गोकुले भ्राजमानम् । यशोदाभियोलूखलाद्धावमानं परामृष्टमत्यन्ततो द्रुत्य गोप्या ॥

Also known as Namamishvaram

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

What the Damodarashtakam is

The Damodarashtakam praises Krishna in eight verses under the name Damodara, the child with a rope (dama) around his belly (udara), a name that also appears in the Vishnu Sahasranama. Tradition places it in the Kartika-mahatmya of the Padma Purana, spoken by the sage Satyavrata, and the Hari-bhakti-vilasa quotes it at 16.199-206 with Sanatana Gosvami's Dig-darshini commentary; the text here follows that printing. The verses move like a short scene. Verses 1 and 2 show the chase and the captured child sobbing, the necklace shaking on his three-lined throat. Verse 3 draws the point: he is won by devotion, not by knowledge of his lordship. Verses 4 and 5 decline liberation and ask only that this child's face stay in the mind. Verse 6 pleads for his glance, verse 7 recalls the two sons of Kubera he freed, and verse 8 salutes the rope, the belly that holds the universe, and Radhika.

Two fingers too short at Gokula

The scene the hymn praises is told in the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana, chapters 9 and 10. Yashoda is churning curd when the child Krishna wants to nurse. She sets him down to save milk boiling over on the fire, and in a temper he cracks the curd pot, slips into a store-room and sits on an upturned mortar handing butter to the monkeys. When he sees her coming he runs; she catches him, and he cries, smearing the black ointment round his eyes. She decides to tie him to the mortar, but every rope she knots on comes up two fingers short, until, seeing her worn out, he lets himself be bound. Still tied, he crawls between two arjuna trees in the yard, the mortar wedges crosswise, and both trees come down. Out step Nalakuvara and Manigriva, sons of Kubera, whom Narada had cursed to stand as trees for a hundred years of the gods after finding them drunk and unclothed. According to tradition, the hymn itself was spoken later by the sage Satyavrata, in a dialogue with Narada and Shaunaka recorded in the Padma Purana. Some scholars instead see it as a product of the Bengal Vaishnava school that has kept it alive.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiनमामीश्वरं सच्चिदानन्दरूपं लसत्कुण्डलं गोकुले भ्राजमानम् । यशोदाभियोलूखलाद्धावमानं परामृष्टमत्यन्ततो द्रुत्य गोप्या ॥
Tamilநமாமீஶ்வரம் ஸச்சிதாநந்தரூபம் லஸத்குண்டலம் கோகுலே ப்ராஜமாநம் । யஶோதாபியோலூகலாத்தாவமாநம் பராம்ருஷ்டமத்யந்ததோ த்ருத்ய கோப்யா ॥
Teluguనమామీశ్వరం సచ్చిదానన్దరూపం లసత్కుణ్డలం గోకులే భ్రాజమానమ్ । యశోదాభియోలూఖలాద్ధావమానం పరామృష్టమత్యన్తతో ద్రుత్య గోప్యా ॥
Kannadaನಮಾಮೀಶ್ವರಂ ಸಚ್ಚಿದಾನನ್ದರೂಪಂ ಲಸತ್ಕುಣ್ಡಲಂ ಗೋಕುಲೇ ಭ್ರಾಜಮಾನಮ್ । ಯಶೋದಾಭಿಯೋಲೂಖಲಾದ್ಧಾವಮಾನಂ ಪರಾಮೃಷ್ಟಮತ್ಯನ್ತತೋ ದ್ರುತ್ಯ ಗೋಪ್ಯಾ ॥
Malayalamനമാമീശ്വരം സച്ചിദാനന്ദരൂപം ലസത്കുണ്ഡലം ഗോകുലേ ഭ്രാജമാനമ് । യശോദാഭിയോലൂഖലാദ്ധാവമാനം പരാമൃഷ്ടമത്യന്തതോ ദ്രുത്യ ഗോപ്യാ ॥
EnglishRoman transliterationnamāmīśvaraṃ saccidānandarūpaṃ lasatkuṇḍalaṃ gokule bhrājamānam | yaśodābhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānaṃ parāmṛṣṭam atyantato drutya gopyā ||
“I bow to the Lord whose form is being, awareness and bliss, whose earrings swing as he shines in Gokula. Afraid of Yashoda, he runs from the mortar, and the cowherd mother, running even faster, catches him from behind.”
नमामीश्वरं
namāmīśvaraṃ — I bow to the Lord
सच्चिदानन्दरूपं
saccidānandarūpaṃ — whose form is being, awareness, bliss
लसत्कुण्डलं
lasatkuṇḍalaṃ — with swinging earrings
गोकुले
gokule — in Gokula
भ्राजमानम्
bhrājamānam — shining
यशोदाभियोलूखलाद्धावमानं
yaśodābhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānaṃ — running from the mortar, afraid of Yashoda
परामृष्टमत्यन्ततो
parāmṛṣṭam atyantato — caught from behind, running even faster
द्रुत्य
drutya — having rushed
गोप्या
gopyā — by the cowherd mother

Damodarashtakam lyrics in full

The eight verses beginning namamishvaram, as sung daily through the month of Kartika; the Padma Purana's narrative verses around the hymn are not part of the chanted text.

All 8 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Damodarashtakam PDFAll 8 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

Verse 1

नमामीश्वरं सच्चिदानन्दरूपं लसत्कुण्डलं गोकुले भ्राजमानम् ।
यशोदाभियोलूखलाद्धावमानं परामृष्टमत्यन्ततो द्रुत्य गोप्या ॥

I bow to the Lord whose form is being, awareness and bliss, whose earrings swing as he shines in Gokula. Afraid of Yashoda, he runs from the mortar, and the cowherd mother, running even faster, catches him from behind.

Verse 2

रुदन्तं मुहुर्नेत्रयुग्मं मृजन्तं कराम्भोजयुग्मेन सातङ्कनेत्रम् ।
मुहुः श्वासकम्पत्रिरेखाङ्ककण्ठस्थितग्रैवं दामोदरं भक्तिबद्धम् ॥

He is crying, rubbing both eyes again and again with his two lotus hands, his eyes full of fear. With each sob the necklace on his neck, marked with three lines, trembles. To that Damodara, bound by love, I bow.

Verse 3

इतीदृक्स्वलीलाभिरानन्दकुण्डे स्वघोषं निमज्जन्तमाख्यापयन्तम् ।
तदीयेशितज्ञेषु भक्तैर्जितत्वं पुनः प्रेमतस्तं शतावृत्ति वन्दे ॥

Through childhood play like this he plunges his own village of cowherds into a pool of joy, and shows those who know only his lordship that he is won over by his devotees. With love I bow to him again, a hundred times over.

Verse 4

वरं देव मोक्षं न मोक्षावधिं वा न चान्यं वृणेऽहं वरेशादपीह ।
इदं ते वपुर्नाथ गोपालबालं सदा मे मनस्याविरास्तां किमन्यैः ॥

O God, though you are the lord of all boons, I ask you neither for liberation, nor for the highest heaven beyond it, nor for any other boon. O Lord, may this form of yours as the little cowherd boy always shine in my mind; what use is anything else?

Verse 5

इदं ते मुखाम्भोजमव्यक्तनीलैर्वृतं कुन्तलैः स्निग्धरक्तैश्च गोप्या ।
मुहुश्चुम्बितं बिम्बरक्ताधरं मे मनस्याविरास्तामलं लक्षलाभैः ॥

May this lotus face of yours, framed by glossy, reddish curls of an indescribably deep dark hue, with lips red as the bimba fruit, kissed again and again by the cowherd mother, appear in my mind. Enough of a hundred thousand other gains.

Verse 6

नमो देव दामोदरानन्त विष्णो प्रसीद प्रभो दुःखजालाब्धिमग्नम् ।
कृपादृष्टिवृष्ट्यातिदीनं बतानुगृहाणेश मामज्ञमेध्यक्षिदृश्यः ॥

Salutations, O God, Damodara, Ananta, Vishnu. Be pleased, O Master, with me, sunk in an ocean of sorrows. Favour me, wretched and ignorant, with a shower of your merciful glance, O Lord, and become visible to my eyes.

Verse 7

कुवेरात्मजौ बद्धमूर्त्यैव यद्वत् त्वया मोचितौ भक्तिभाजौ कृतौ च ।
तथा प्रेमभक्तिं स्वकां मे प्रयच्छ न मोक्षे ग्रहो मेऽस्ति दामोदरेह ॥

Just as you, while still bound to the mortar, freed the two sons of Kubera and made them devotees, so give me loving devotion to yourself. O Damodara, I have no longing here for liberation.

Verse 8

नमस्तेऽस्तु दाम्ने स्फुरद्दीप्तिधाम्ने त्वदीयोदरायाथ विश्वस्य धाम्ने ।
नमो राधिकायै त्वदीयप्रियायै नमोऽनन्तलीलाय देवाय तुभ्यम् ॥

Salutations to the rope that binds you, shining with radiant light, and to your belly, the abode of the whole universe. Salutations to Radhika, your beloved, and salutations to you, the God whose play is endless.

The syllable people get wrong

In verse 1, yaśodābhiyolūkhalād joins yaśodābhiyā, 'out of fear of Yashoda', to ulūkhalāt, 'from the mortar', so the final ā and the u fuse into o. Say ya-SHO-daa-bhi-YO-loo-kha-laad as one flowing word with a breathy kh, not 'abhiya ulukalad' with a plain k.

When the Damodarashtakam is chanted

Weekday. Thursday

Festival. Kartika, also called Damodara month, with the evening lamp offering

Questions

No individual poet is named. Tradition holds that the sage Satyavrata spoke it in the Padma Purana, in a conversation with Narada and Shaunaka. The Hari-bhakti-vilasa quotes the eight verses at 16.199-206, after a line (16.198) directing that Damodara be worshipped in Kartika and this prayer be recited daily, and Sanatana Gosvami's commentary explains it word by word. Some scholars think the hymn took shape within the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition rather than in the older Purana.
Both readings describe the curls framing the child's face. The printed Hari-bhakti-vilasa, followed here and in most singing, has avyakta-nilair, curls of a dark blue too deep to name. Many other printings have atyanta-nilair, exceedingly dark. Sanatana Gosvami's commentary itself glosses the curls as 'atyanta-nila', extremely dark, which may explain why the second reading spread. The sense of the verse is the same either way.
Verse 4 says the devotee asks for neither moksha, nor the highest heaven beyond it, nor any other boon from the lord of boons, only that the form of the little cowherd boy stay in the mind. Verse 7 grounds this in the story: the sons of Kubera were not merely released from the trees but made devotees, and the verse asks for that same loving devotion, adding that it has no hold on liberation. Verse 5 closes by calling a hundred thousand other gains enough.
No. Whether a book sets it in Telugu, Bengali, Tamil or Devanagari letters, the Sanskrit is the one prayer of eight stanzas, and the romanized form sung in ISKCON temples is the same eight verses beginning namamishvaram. Small spelling differences appear, such as Kuvera for Kubera in verse 7 or bata for vata in verse 6. A separate, shorter Padma Purana recension also circulates; it lacks verse 3 and words verses 2, 4, 6 and 8 differently.
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