Ekadanta Ganapathi Mantra
ॐ एकदन्ताय नमःIn Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.
Who Ekadanta Ganapathi is
Ekadanta Ganapathi is the single-tusked manifestation whose very name records the deliberate sacrifice of one ivory tusk. In the meditation verses for the thirty-two forms he appears with a blue body and four arms, holding his broken tusk, a rosary, an axe and a laddu. The remaining tusk curves unbroken. Popular tradition links this form to the act of scribe-ship: the deity who accepted incompleteness of body in order to complete a text. He is therefore contemplated wherever singleness of purpose is the inner theme—one tusk, one task, one-pointed mind. The belly is large, the ears like winnowing fans, yet the gaze is quiet, fixed on the work of inscription rather than on outer display.
Tusk Offered for the Text
The Mahābhārata, in an opening passage found in the older printed editions, tells that Vyāsa asked Gaṇeśa to write the poem down as he dictated it. Gaṇeśa agreed on condition that the dictation never pause, and Vyāsa in turn asked that he write nothing he had not understood, composing knotty verses to give himself time. The epic itself says nothing of a broken tusk. Later folk tradition adds that when the pen failed, Gaṇeśa snapped off one tusk and went on writing with it, and this is the telling most devotees know. The Mudgala Purāṇa gives Ekadanta a different role, as the form that overcomes the demon Madāsura. The form called Ekadanta carries the mark of the single tusk, and contemplation of it turns on singleness of purpose: one tusk, one task, one-pointed mind.
The mantra, in six scripts
The name mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.
- ॐ
- oṃ — the primal syllable
- एकदन्ताय
- ekadantāya — to the single-tusked one
- नमः
- namaḥ — salutation
More Ekadanta Ganapathi mantras
Ekadanta Ganapathi Dhyana Shloka
The verse recited to picture the deity before japa.
- लम्बोदरं
- lambodaraṃ — big-bellied
- श्यामतनुं
- śyāmatanuṃ — dark of body
- गणेशं
- gaṇeśaṃ — Gaṇeśa
- कुठारम्
- kuṭhāram — the axe
- अक्षस्रजम्
- akṣasrajam — the rosary
- ऊर्ध्वगात्रम्
- ūrdhvagātram — raised aloft (in the upper hands)
- सलड्डुकं
- salaḍḍukaṃ — together with a laddu
- दन्तम्
- dantam — the tusk
- अधः
- adhaḥ — below
- कराभ्यां
- karābhyāṃ — with the two hands
- वामेतराभ्यां
- vāmetarābhyāṃ — the left and the other (right)
- च
- ca — and
- दधानम्
- dadhānam — holding
- ईडे
- īḍe — I praise
Source: Dhyāna śloka of this form in the Śrītattvanidhi's thirty-two Gaṇapati forms (no. 22 in the Stotranidhi list). Stotranidhi and Drik Panchang agree letter for letter. ऊर्ध्वगात्रम् is read here, as Drik Panchang reads it, as the axe and rosary held in the upper hands.
The syllable people get wrong
The opening e of ekadantāya is a pure monophthong. Many speakers prefix a palatal glide, producing “yekadantāya.” The tongue must remain neutral and unraised at the start; the vowel alone begins the word, without the y-sound that turns it into a diphthong foreign to the name.
When Ekadanta Ganapathi is chanted
Weekday. Tuesday
Questions
Have your chart read before you decide
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
- Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
- He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
- Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Related
How to Chant
Mala, counts, timing and the mistakes that apply to any mantra.
Ganapathi Mula Mantra
The foundational mantra. Chanted at the start of any undertaking.
Vidya Ganapathi Mantra
For study, examinations and retention of what is learned.
Ganapathi Homa
The fire ritual, performed for you and telecast live.
Chanting is yours to do. Some things are performed for you.
Where a matter carries real weight, devotees sponsor the homa alongside their own practice. Performed for you and any family members you name, at our Yagna Ashram, in your name and gotra, on a muhurta calculated from your chart, and telecast live so you can watch it done for you.