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Mantra · Kurma Gayatri and Aryaman's hymn to the tortoise from the Bhagavata

Kurma Mantra

ॐ कच्छपेशाय विद्महे महाबलाय धीमहि । तन्नो कूर्मः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Also known as Kurma Gayatri

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

The Kurma Homam, performed for youBook →

What the Kurma Mantra is

A Kurma avatar mantra is a prayer to Vishnu in his second descent, the tortoise, and this page gathers six of them in order. The Kurma Gayatri comes first: it follows the three-part pattern of the avatara Gayatris, knowing Kurma as master of tortoises and meditating on him as the one of great strength, and it is handed down in devotional editions that cite no scripture. The short name mantra Om Kurmaya Namah follows, also without a named source. The remaining items are scripture. A prose mantra and three verses form the hymn of Aryaman in Bhagavata Purana 5.18.30-33. It salutes Akupara, the tortoise whose dwelling cannot be seen, then holds that every class of being, every mountain, river, planet and star, is only a name for him, and closes by honouring him as the one the reckoning of the principles of creation points to. The last verse is Bhagavata 12.13.2, a blessing that asks the breath of the dozing tortoise to protect the listener.

Aryaman's hymn in the golden land

The fifth book of the Bhagavata Purana maps Jambudvipa as a ring of regions, or varshas, and names in each the form of Vishnu worshipped there and the devotee who leads that worship. In Hiranmaya-varsha, the text says, Vishnu dwells in a tortoise body, and Aryaman, chief of that land, worships the form together with its other inhabitants. The prose mantra and three verses printed here are the hymn the Purana gives to Aryaman (5.18.30-33). It is a reflective prayer rather than a retelling: the tortoise is praised less for a deed than as the unseen ground beneath a world of names and forms. The deed itself is told in the eighth book. When the gods and asuras set Mount Mandara turning in the milk ocean, it sank for want of a footing (8.7.6); Vishnu took the shape of a vast tortoise and raised it on his back (8.7.8-9), and the text adds that he felt the grinding of the mountain as a pleasant scratching (8.7.10). The Bhagavata comes back to that picture in its final chapter, which sings the greatness of the Purana itself. Verse 12.13.2 imagines the tortoise drowsing under the itch of the turning rock and says the ocean's tides still come and go in step with his breathing. Jayadeva's tortoise verse, sung with the other nine avatars, has its own place on the Dashavatara Stotram page.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiॐ कच्छपेशाय विद्महे महाबलाय धीमहि । तन्नो कूर्मः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Tamilௐ கச்சபேஶாய வித்மஹே மஹாபலாய தீமஹி । தந்நோ கூர்மஃ ப்ரசோதயாத் ॥

Teluguఓం కచ్ఛపేశాయ విద్మహే మహాబలాయ ధీమహి । తన్నో కూర్మః ప్రచోదయాత్ ॥

Kannadaಓಂ ಕಚ್ಛಪೇಶಾಯ ವಿದ್ಮಹೇ ಮಹಾಬಲಾಯ ಧೀಮಹಿ । ತನ್ನೋ ಕೂರ್ಮಃ ಪ್ರಚೋದಯಾತ್ ॥

Malayalamഓം കച്ഛപേശായ വിദ്മഹേ മഹാബലായ ധീമഹി । തന്നോ കൂര്മഃ പ്രചോദയാത് ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationoṃ kacchapeśāya vidmahe mahābalāya dhīmahi | tanno kūrmaḥ pracodayāt ||

“Om. We come to know the Lord of tortoises and meditate on the one of great strength; may that Kurma inspire and guide us. (The Kurma Gayatri.)”

ॐ: oṃ — Om
कच्छपेशाय: kacchapeśāya — the master of tortoises
विद्महे: vidmahe — we come to know
महाबलाय: mahābalāya — the one of great strength
धीमहि: dhīmahi — we meditate on
तन्नो: tanno — may that one, us
कूर्मः: kūrmaḥ — Kurma, the tortoise
प्रचोदयात्: pracodayāt — inspire and guide

Kurma Mantra lyrics in full

The Kurma Gayatri and the name mantra, then Aryaman's hymn from Bhagavata Purana 5.18.30-33, and the tortoise verse of Bhagavata 12.13.2.

All 7 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Kurma Mantra PDFAll 7 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

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Mantra 1

ॐ कच्छपेशाय विद्महे महाबलाय धीमहि ।
तन्नो कूर्मः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Om. We come to know the Lord of tortoises and meditate on the one of great strength; may that Kurma inspire and guide us. (The Kurma Gayatri.)

Mantra 2

ॐ कूर्माय नमः ।

Om, salutation to Kurma, Vishnu in the form of the tortoise.

Mantra 3

ॐ नमो भगवते अकूपाराय सर्वसत्त्वगुणविशेषणायानुपलक्षितस्थानाय ।
नमो वर्ष्मणे नमो भूम्ने नमो नमोऽवस्थानाय नमस्ते ॥

Om, salutation to the Lord Akupara, the great tortoise, who is marked by pure goodness and whose dwelling place cannot be seen. Salutation to the one of vast body, to the all-pervading one, again and again to the support of all; salutation to you.

Verse 1

यद्रूपमेतन्निजमाययार्पितमर्थस्वरूपं बहुरूपरूपितम् ।
सङ्ख्या न यस्यास्त्ययथोपलम्भनात्तस्मै नमस्तेऽव्यपदेशरूपिणे ॥

This visible world of things, shown in many forms, is a form set out by your own power of illusion; because it is not perceived as it truly is, there is no counting it. Salutation to you, whose own form cannot be named or pointed out.

Verse 2

जरायुजं स्वेदजमण्डजोद्भिदं चराचरं देवर्षिपितृभूतमैन्द्रियम् ।
द्यौः खं क्षितिः शैलसरित्समुद्रद्वीपग्रहर्क्षेत्यभिधेय एकः ॥

Beings born from the womb, from moisture, from eggs and from sprouting seeds, the moving and the unmoving, gods, sages, ancestors, the elements and the senses, heaven, sky and earth, mountains, rivers, oceans, islands, planets and stars: all these names point to you alone.

Verse 3

यस्मिन्नसङ्ख्येयविशेषनामरूपाकृतौ कविभिः कल्पितेयम् ।
सङ्ख्या यया तत्त्वदृशापनीयते तस्मै नमः साङ्ख्यनिदर्शनाय ते इति ॥

In you, who bear countless particular names, forms and shapes, the wise have set out this counting of the principles of creation; and by the sight of the truth that counting itself is set aside. Salutation to you, the one revealed by that reckoning.

Verse 4

पृष्ठे भ्राम्यदमन्दमन्दरगिरिग्रावाग्रकण्डूयनान्निद्रालोः कमठाकृतेर्भगवतः श्वासानिलाः पान्तु वः ।
यत्संस्कारकलानुवर्तनवशाद् वेलानिभेनाम्भसां यातायातमतन्द्रितं जलनिधेर्नाद्यापि विश्राम्यति ॥

May the breaths of the Lord in tortoise form protect you, breaths He drew as He dozed while the edges of the heavy, whirling Mandara mountain scratched His back. Following the trace of that breathing, the ocean's waters still come and go without rest as the tides, and even today they have not stopped.

The syllable people get wrong

In कच्छपेशाय (kacchapeśāya) the cch is a doubled, breathy 'ch-chh' and the ś is 'sh', not 's': say kach-chha-pay-SHAA-ya. The word is kacchapa (tortoise) joined to īśa (master), so the sh carries the meaning.

When the Kurma Mantra is chanted

Weekday. Thursday

Festival. Kurma Jayanti (Vaishakha Purnima)

Questions

Kacchapa means tortoise and isha means master, so kacchapeshaya vidmahe says 'we come to know the master of tortoises'. Mahabalaya dhimahi adds 'we meditate on the one of great strength', and tanno kurmah prachodayat asks that Kurma inspire and guide. Some printings spell the first word kacchapesaya with a plain s; this page keeps the sh spelling of the Telugu-script lists, which gives the meaning 'master of tortoises'.

In Bhagavata Purana 5.18.29 Aryaman is the chief of the people of Hiranmaya-varsha, one of the regions of Jambudvipa, where Vishnu is said to live in a tortoise body. He worships that form with the other residents and recites the hymn of 5.18.30-33. Some printings give the passage on its own under the title Aryamakritam Kurmastotram, the Kurma hymn made by Aryaman.

Bhagavata 12.13.2 draws on the churning story of the eighth book, where the tortoise feels the turning of Mount Mandara on his back as a scratching. The verse pictures him growing drowsy under that itch and breathing slowly, and says the rise and fall of the ocean's tides keeps pace with those breaths even now. It closes by asking that the breath winds protect the hearer.

Kurma Jayanti is widely kept on the full moon of Vaishakha, though the Srikurmam temple in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, observes it on Jyeshtha Bahula Dwadashi. At Srikurmam the sanctum holds a tortoise image in three stone sections beside Vishnu with Lakshmi, the deity faces west, and the earliest inscription dates to about 1113 CE. The temple pond is also known as a refuge for Indian star tortoises.

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