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Vakratunda Mahakaya Mantra

वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ । निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥

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

What the Vakratunda Mahakaya is

Vakratunda Mahakaya is a single anushtubh shloka, four quarters of eight syllables, addressed to Ganesha. Its first half is made entirely of names called out in the vocative. Vakratunda means 'curved trunk', from vakra, bent, and tunda, the trunk or snout. Mahakaya means 'great-bodied'. Suryakoti samaprabha means 'equal in radiance to a koti of suns', a koti being ten million, which translations loosely render as 'a million' or 'countless'. Only the second half makes a request: nirvighnam kuru me deva, 'O God, make it free of obstacles for me', followed by sarvakaryeshu sarvada, 'in all undertakings, always'. No author is named anywhere in the verse or in the printed collections that carry it. It is said at the threshold of things: before study or an examination, at the start of a journey, and at the opening of a puja or other ceremony. In print it lives in the working liturgy rather than in a known book: Ganesha puja sections of ritual manuals and morning-remembrance (pratah-smarana) compilations.

A verse without a fixed home text

There is no composition story attached to this shloka, and its source is less certain than its popularity suggests. Many popular sources state that it comes from the Mudgala Purana; others name the Ganesha Purana or the Ganesha Upanishad. None of these attributions comes with a chapter and verse that can be checked, so it is given here as popular belief, not as a confirmed fact. The name itself does have a Puranic setting. The Mudgala Purana describes eight incarnations of Ganesha, and Vakratunda is the first of them: riding a lion, he overcomes the demon Matsaryasura, who stands for envy. Vakratunda is also the first of the twelve names in the Sankata Nashana hymn that tradition places in the Narada Purana. Where the verse can be traced is in printed ritual books. The Samskararatnamala of Bhatta Gopinatha Dikshita gives it inside the Ganapati puja performed before punyahavachana, the rite of declaring a day auspicious, so that the main ceremony may proceed without hindrance. That text reads kotisurya and avighnam where most modern editions print suryakoti and nirvighnam. The Brihat Stotra Ratnakara (1953) uses the same verse as the opening of its Vedapada Stava, and compilations of morning prayers place it at the head of the day.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiवक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ । निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥

Tamilவக்ரதுண்ட மஹாகாய ஸூர்யகோடி ஸமப்ரப । நிர்விக்நம் குரு மே தேவ ஸர்வகார்யேஷு ஸர்வதா ॥

Teluguవక్రతుణ్డ మహాకాయ సూర్యకోటి సమప్రభ । నిర్విఘ్నం కురు మే దేవ సర్వకార్యేషు సర్వదా ॥

Kannadaವಕ್ರತುಣ್ಡ ಮಹಾಕಾಯ ಸೂರ್ಯಕೋಟಿ ಸಮಪ್ರಭ । ನಿರ್ವಿಘ್ನಂ ಕುರು ಮೇ ದೇವ ಸರ್ವಕಾರ್ಯೇಷು ಸರ್ವದಾ ॥

Malayalamവക്രതുണ്ഡ മഹാകായ സൂര്യകോടി സമപ്രഭ । നിര്വിഘ്നം കുരു മേ ദേവ സര്വകാര്യേഷു സര്വദാ ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationvakratuṇḍa mahākāya sūryakoṭi samaprabha | nirvighnaṃ kuru me deva sarvakāryeṣu sarvadā ||

“O Lord with the curved trunk and the mighty body, whose splendour equals that of ten million suns: O God, make all my undertakings free of obstacles, always.”

वक्रतुण्ड: vakratuṇḍa — O one with the curved trunk
महाकाय: mahākāya — O great-bodied one
सूर्यकोटि: sūryakoṭi — ten million suns
समप्रभ: samaprabha — O one of equal radiance
निर्विघ्नं: nirvighnaṃ — free of obstacles
कुरु: kuru — make
मे: me — for me
देव: deva — O God
सर्वकार्येषु: sarvakāryeṣu — in all undertakings
सर्वदा: sarvadā — always

The syllable people get wrong

In vakratuṇḍa, the ṇḍ is retroflex: curl the tongue tip back against the roof of the mouth for both the n and the d, and keep the t plain and unaspirated. Spellings such as 'vakrathunda' lead many people to say a breathy 'th' and a dental 'nda', which turns the word into something the verse does not say.

When the Vakratunda Mahakaya is chanted

Weekday. Tuesday

Festival. Ganesha Chaturthi

Questions

Surya is the sun, koti is the Indian number for ten million (a crore), sama means equal and prabha means radiance. Together the phrase addresses Ganesha as 'you whose radiance equals ten million suns'. Some translations say 'a million suns' or 'a billion suns'; the Sanskrit number is ten million, used here as a figure for light beyond counting. Grammatically it is one compound in the vocative, so the whole phrase is a form of address, not a separate statement.

It is often said to be, but this could not be confirmed. No chapter and verse in the Mudgala Purana is given with that attribution, and others assign it to the Ganesha Purana or the Ganesha Upanishad instead. What can be shown is that the verse appears in ritual manuals such as the Samskararatnamala and in stotra collections such as the Brihat Stotra Ratnakara. It is best described as a traditional invocation whose original source is unknown.

Literally the name describes the elephant trunk, vakra meaning bent and tunda the trunk. It is also a title with its own lore. In the Mudgala Purana, Vakratunda is the first of Ganesha's eight incarnations, mounted on a lion, who defeats Matsaryasura, the demon of envy. The same text describes this Vakratunda as the sum of all bodies, which sits beside the verse's second epithet, mahakaya, 'great-bodied', though the verse itself does not draw that link.

Both readings exist. Most modern editions print suryakoti samaprabha and nirvighnam, as given on this page. Older printed sources such as the Samskararatnamala and the Brihat Stotra Ratnakara read kotisuryasamaprabha, and the Samskararatnamala has avighnam. The meaning does not change: 'ten million suns' and 'free of obstacles' in either order. Some Hindi sites add Shri before the first word, which adds a syllable to the eight-syllable line.

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