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Home › Mantras › Surya Ashtakam
Surya (Aditya) Surya Ashtakam: Samba standing in the Chandrabhaga river offering water to Surya on his seven-horse chariot
Samba offering water to the rising Sun in the Chandrabhaga at the end of his penance
Mantra · Samba's eight salutations to the Sun, with three verses on Sunday

Surya Ashtakam

आदिदेव नमस्तुभ्यं प्रसीद मम भास्कर । दिवाकर नमस्तुभ्यं प्रभाकर नमोऽस्तु ते ॥

Also known as Adideva Namastubhyam

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

What the Surya Ashtakam is

The Surya Ashtakam, printed in Sanskrit as the Suryashtakam, is a short hymn of praise to Surya that the printed collections introduce with the words 'Samba uvacha', Samba said, putting it in the mouth of Krishna's son. No author is named, and tradition assigns it to the Samba Purana, the Saura upapurana built around Samba's devotion to the Sun. Verse 1, without a refrain, is a plain plea: prasida mama, be gracious to me. Verses 2 to 8 each close on the same half-line, 'tam suryam pranamamyaham', I bow to that Sun, and in four of them the quarter before it repeats one fixed phrase. The picture changes from verse to verse: a white lotus held in the hand, a heaped mass of radiance, a colour like the bandhuka flower, a necklace and earrings, the bearer of a single wheel. Verse 8 ends on the giver of knowledge, realised knowledge and liberation. Three closing verses state the reward and set rules for Sunday.

Samba, the curse and the Chandrabhaga

The speaker of the hymn is Samba, the son of Krishna, and his story is the founding legend of Sun worship in the Saura Puranas. The Samba Purana relates that he mocked the sage Durvasa and was cursed with leprosy. Another telling makes Narada the cause: slighted by the young man, Narada led him to the pool where Krishna's wives were bathing, and Krishna himself pronounced the curse before learning of the trick. In both accounts it is Krishna who sends Samba to Surya as the one god able to lift the disease. Samba is said to have spent twelve years in penance at Mitravana, the grove of Mitra, on the banks of the Chandrabhaga, until the Sun restored him. In gratitude he raised a temple and, the Samba Purana adds, brought eighteen Maga Brahmins from Shakadvipa to serve as its priests. The Purana places Mitravana at Multan, the old Sun shrine now in Pakistan, while Odisha tradition sets the penance near Konark, where the dry bed of the Chandrabhaga lies close to the thirteenth-century temple. Odisha keeps the memory in Samba Dashami, in the month of Pausha, when mothers offer food to the rising Sun in the names of their children.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiआदिदेव नमस्तुभ्यं प्रसीद मम भास्कर । दिवाकर नमस्तुभ्यं प्रभाकर नमोऽस्तु ते ॥
Tamilஆதிதேவ நமஸ்துப்யம் ப்ரஸீத மம பாஸ்கர । திவாகர நமஸ்துப்யம் ப்ரபாகர நமோஸ்து தே ॥
Teluguఆదిదేవ నమస్తుభ్యం ప్రసీద మమ భాస్కర । దివాకర నమస్తుభ్యం ప్రభాకర నమోఽస్తు తే ॥
Kannadaಆದಿದೇವ ನಮಸ್ತುಭ್ಯಂ ಪ್ರಸೀದ ಮಮ ಭಾಸ್ಕರ । ದಿವಾಕರ ನಮಸ್ತುಭ್ಯಂ ಪ್ರಭಾಕರ ನಮೋಽಸ್ತು ತೇ ॥
Malayalamആദിദേവ നമസ്തുഭ്യം പ്രസീദ മമ ഭാസ്കര । ദിവാകര നമസ്തുഭ്യം പ്രഭാകര നമോഽസ്തു തേ ॥
EnglishRoman transliterationādideva namastubhyaṃ prasīda mama bhāskara | divākara namastubhyaṃ prabhākara namo'stu te ||
“Salutations to you, O first among the gods; be gracious to me, O Bhaskara, maker of light. Salutations to you, O Divakara, maker of the day; O Prabhakara, giver of radiance, I bow to you.”
आदिदेव
ādideva — O first god
नमस्तुभ्यं
namastubhyaṃ — salutation to you
प्रसीद
prasīda — be gracious
मम
mama — to me
भास्कर
bhāskara — O maker of light
दिवाकर
divākara — O maker of the day
नमस्तुभ्यं
namastubhyaṃ — salutation to you
प्रभाकर
prabhākara — O giver of radiance
नमोऽस्तु
namo'stu — let there be salutation
ते
te — to you

Surya Ashtakam lyrics in full

The eight verses spoken by Samba, followed by the three closing verses that state the reward.

All 11 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Surya Ashtakam PDFAll 11 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

Verse 1

आदिदेव नमस्तुभ्यं प्रसीद मम भास्कर ।
दिवाकर नमस्तुभ्यं प्रभाकर नमोऽस्तु ते ॥

Salutations to you, O first among the gods; be gracious to me, O Bhaskara, maker of light. Salutations to you, O Divakara, maker of the day; O Prabhakara, giver of radiance, I bow to you.

Verse 2

सप्ताश्वरथमारूढं प्रचण्डं कश्यपात्मजम् ।
श्वेतपद्मधरं देवं तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

He rides a chariot drawn by seven horses, he is fierce in his blaze and is the son of Kashyapa. I bow to that Sun, the god who holds a white lotus.

Verse 3

लोहितं रथमारूढं सर्वलोकपितामहम् ।
महापापहरं देवं तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

Red in hue, seated on his chariot, he is the grandsire of all the worlds. I bow to that Sun, the god who takes away great sins.

Verse 4

त्रैगुण्यं च महाशूरं ब्रह्मविष्णुमहेश्वरम् ।
महापापहरं देवं तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

He is the three qualities of nature, a mighty hero, and is Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara in one. I bow to that Sun, the god who takes away great sins.

Verse 5

बृंहितं तेजः पुञ्जं च वायुमाकाशमेव च ।
प्रभुं च सर्वलोकानां तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

He is a vast, swelling mass of radiance; he is the wind and the sky as well. I bow to that Sun, the lord of all the worlds.

Verse 6

बन्धूकपुष्पसङ्काशं हारकुण्डलभूषितम् ।
एकचक्रधरं देवं तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

He glows like the red bandhuka flower and is adorned with a necklace and earrings. I bow to that Sun, the god who bears the single wheel.

Verse 7

तं सूर्यं जगत्कर्तारं महातेजः प्रदीपनम् ।
महापापहरं देवं तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

That Sun is the maker of the world, the one who kindles great radiance. I bow to that Sun, the god who takes away great sins.

Verse 8

तं सूर्यं जगतां नाथं ज्ञानविज्ञानमोक्षदम् ।
महापापहरं देवं तं सूर्यं प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥

That Sun is the lord of the worlds, the giver of knowledge, of realised wisdom and of liberation. I bow to that Sun, the god who takes away great sins.

Phala Shruti 1

सूर्याष्टकं पठेन्नित्यं ग्रहपीडाप्रणाशनम् ।
अपुत्रो लभते पुत्रं दरिद्रो धनवान्भवेत् ॥

One should recite the Surya Ashtakam daily; the verse says it removes the afflictions caused by the planets. It says the childless gain a son and the poor become wealthy.

Phala Shruti 2

आमिषं मधुपानं च यः करोति रवेर्दिने ।
सप्तजन्म भवेद्रोगी जन्मजन्म दरिद्रता ॥

The verse says that whoever eats meat and drinks liquor on the Sun's day (Sunday) will be sick for seven births and poor in birth after birth.

Phala Shruti 3

स्त्रीतैलमधुमांसानि यस्त्यजेत्तु रवेर्दिने ।
न व्याधिः शोकदारिद्र्यं सूर्यलोकं स गच्छति ॥

The verse says that whoever gives up relations with women, oil, liquor and meat on the Sun's day suffers no illness, grief or poverty, and goes to the world of the Sun.

The syllable people get wrong

The refrain praṇamāmyaham, which closes verses 2 to 8, is often split back into 'pranamami aham' or slurred as 'pranam-myam'. It is one word of five syllables, pra-ṇa-mām-ya-ham, with a retroflex ṇ and the long ā held, so that 'taṃ sūryaṃ praṇamāmyaham' keeps its eight syllables.

When the Surya Ashtakam is chanted

Festival. Ratha Saptami (Magha Saptami)

Questions

No author is recorded. The printed text opens with 'Samba uvacha', so the verses are presented as the words of Samba, the son of Krishna, addressed to the Sun who cured him. Tradition locates the hymn in the Samba Purana, a Saura upapurana that the scholar R. C. Hazra dated to roughly 650 to 850 CE. The Brihat Stotra Ratnakar, a standard printed anthology of stotras, carries the hymn with Samba's speaker line and no author's name.
Maha is great, papa is sin or wrongdoing, and hara is one who takes away; devam is the god. The phrase calls Surya the god who removes great sins. It forms the third quarter of verses 3, 4, 7 and 8, always leading into the refrain 'tam suryam pranamamyaham', I bow to that Sun. In verses 2, 5 and 6 that slot is filled by a different picture instead: the white lotus, the lord of all worlds, the single wheel.
They are the phala shruti. The first says that reading the Suryashtakam daily removes the afflictions caused by the planets, and that the childless gain a son and the poor become wealthy. The second and third turn to Sunday, the Sun's day: the verse says that eating meat and drinking liquor on that day brings sickness for seven births, while giving up women, oil, liquor and meat on that day leads to the world of the Sun. Some printings omit these three verses.
No. The Aditya Hridayam is a passage of the Ramayana's battle book, a thirty-one verse teaching that the sage Agastya gives Rama before the last fight with Ravana. The Surya Ashtakam is a much shorter devotional hymn spoken by Samba, eight verses with a fixed refrain and three closing verses on Sunday observance. Both name the Sun as Bhaskara, Divakara and Prabhakara and identify him with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, but they come from different texts and settings.
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