The Kalyan Mandir Stotra is the long hymn to Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara: forty-four verses of Sanskrit, opening with the words kalyāṇamandiram udāram, “a vast house of blessings”. It is recited by Shvetambaras, Digambaras and Sthanakvasis alike, it sits alongside the Bhaktamar Stotra in the books of devotional hymns, and it is the Sanskrit companion to the Prakrit Uvasaggaharam Stotra. Where the Uvasaggaharam is a minute long, the Kalyan Mandir is a full act of devotion, and it tells a story as well as praising one.
This page gives the Sanskrit of all forty-four verses, a transliteration, a meaning in our own words, notes on what is worth noticing, and an honest account of who wrote it and how we know the text.
Who Wrote It
Two traditions name two authors. The Shvetambara and Sthanakvasi books we consulted ascribe the hymn to Siddhasena Divakara, the logician; the Digambara edition we consulted names Kumudachandra, and reads the compound jananayanakumudacandra in the last verse as carrying that name. The two may be linked: the 1932 editor cites the Shvetambara biography Prabhavakacharita as saying that Siddhasena was known as Kumudachandra before his initiation, though we have not checked that passage ourselves. The editor also notes that the attribution to Siddhasena has been questioned, finds the objection unproven, and keeps it. The date is uncertain too. We name both traditions and decide neither.
The legend attached to the hymn, as it is told in the books we consulted, is that the author recited it at Ujjain, where an image of Parshvanatha is said to have appeared before the people present. Accounts differ about the details, including which verse brought the image, and we tell it only as a story.
What the Hymn Does
The hymn has a clear shape. Verses 1 to 18 praise the Jina and state the poet’s inability to do justice to him, using a series of homely images: the owl and the sun, the child and the ocean, the water-skin, the frost. Verses 19 to 28 describe the signs of the Jina’s assembly, including the eight pratiharyas. Verses 29 and 30 are a pair of paradoxes. Verses 31 to 33 tell the attack of Kamatha, and verse 34 praises those who worship. Verses 35 to 42 are the poet speaking about himself: he has not truly seen, heard or held the Jina in his mind, and he asks for refuge. Verses 43 and 44 close with a blessing on those who recite.
The Text
Verse 1
संसारसागरनिमज्जदशेषजन्तु पोतायमानमभिनम्य जिनेश्वरस्य ॥१॥
Transliteration:
kalyāṇamandiramudāramavadyabhedi bhītābhayapradamaninditamaṅghripadmam |
saṁsārasāgaranimajjadaśeṣajantu potāyamānamabhinamya jineśvarasya ||1||
Meaning: Having bowed to the lotus feet of the Lord of the Jinas, feet that are a spacious house of blessings, that cut away fault, that give fearless shelter to the frightened, that no one can find fault with, and that are like a boat for every creature sinking in the ocean of worldly life,
Verse 2
तीर्थेश्वरस्य कमठस्मयधूमकेतोस्तस्याहमेष किल संस्तवनं करिष्ये ॥२॥
Transliteration:
yasya svayaṁ suragururgarimāmburāśeḥ stotraṁ suvistṛtamatirna vibhurvidhātum |
tīrtheśvarasya kamaṭhasmayadhūmaketostasyāhameṣa kila saṁstavanaṁ kariṣye ||2||
Meaning: I shall now try to praise that lord of the ford, who burned out Kamatha’s pride as a comet burns, an ocean of greatness, whom even Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods, with all his wide understanding, cannot praise in full. (Verses 1 and 2 are one sentence.)
The legend of Kamatha. The tradition behind this hymn is the one told on the Parshvanatha page: a rival ascetic, Kamatha, burned with resentment and in a later life sent every kind of terror against the Jina in meditation. Verses 31 to 33 return to it; here it is only named.
Verse 3
धृष्टोऽपि कौशिकशिशुर्यदि वा दिवान्धो रूपं प्ररूपयति किं किल धर्मरश्मेः ॥३॥
Transliteration:
sāmānyato’pi tava varṇayituṁ svarūpamasmādṛśāḥ kathamadhīśa bhavantyadhīśāḥ |
dhṛṣṭo’pi kauśikaśiśuryadi vā divāndho rūpaṁ prarūpayati kiṁ kila dharmaraśmeḥ ||3||
Meaning: How could people like us, lord, describe your nature even in a general way? Even if he is bold, a baby owl, blind by day, can hardly draw the shape of the sun.
Verse 4
कल्पान्तवान्तपयसः प्रकटोऽपि यस्मान्मीयेत केन जलधेर्ननु रत्नराशिः ॥४॥
Transliteration:
mohakṣayādanubhavannapi nātha martyo nūnaṁ guṇān gaṇayituṁ na tava kṣameta |
kalpāntavāntapayasaḥ prakaṭo’pi yasmānmīyeta kena jaladhernanu ratnarāśiḥ ||4||
Meaning: Even a person who has cut away delusion and truly knows your qualities cannot count them. When the sea throws up its water at the end of the age and its jewels lie in view, who can measure the heap?
Verse 5
बालोऽपि किं न निजबाहुयुगं वितत्य विस्तीर्णतां कथयति स्वधियाम्बुराशेः ॥५॥
Transliteration:
abhyudyato’smi tava nātha jaḍāśayo’pi kartuṁ stavaṁ lasadasaṁkhyaguṇākarasya |
bālo’pi kiṁ na nijabāhuyugaṁ vitatya vistīrṇatāṁ kathayati svadhiyāmburāśeḥ ||5||
Meaning: I am dull-witted, yet I have set out to praise you, whose qualities are beyond measure. A child, too, stretches out both arms to show how wide the ocean is, by his own understanding.
Verse 6
जाता तदेवमसमीक्षितकारितेयं जल्पन्ति वा निजगिरा ननु पक्षिणोऽपि ॥६॥
Transliteration:
ye yogināmapi na yānti guṇāstaveśa vaktuṁ kathaṁ bhavati teṣu mamāvakāśaḥ |
jātā tadevamasamīkṣitakāriteyaṁ jalpanti vā nijagirā nanu pakṣiṇo’pi ||6||
Meaning: The qualities that even yogis cannot reach, how could I speak of them? This has happened because I did not think it through; even birds chirp in their own language.
Verse 7
तीव्रातपोपहतपान्थजनान् निदाघे प्रीणाति पद्मसरसः सरसोऽनिलोऽपि ॥७॥
Transliteration:
āstāmacintyamahimā jina saṁstavaste nāmāpi pāti bhavato bhavato jaganti |
tīvrātapopahatapānthajanān nidāghe prīṇāti padmasarasaḥ saraso’nilo’pi ||7||
Meaning: Let your inconceivable greatness be set aside: even your name protects the worlds. A cool breeze from a lotus pond refreshes travellers scorched by fierce summer heat, even from a distance.
Verse 8
सद्यो भुजङ्गममया इव मध्यभागमभ्यागते वनशिखण्डिनि चन्दनस्य ॥८॥
Transliteration:
hṛdvartini tvayi vibho śithilībhavanti jantoḥ kṣaṇena nibiḍā api karmabandhāḥ |
sadyo bhujaṅgamamayā iva madhyabhāgamabhyāgate vanaśikhaṇḍini candanasya ||8||
Meaning: When you dwell in the heart, lord, even the tightest knots of karma loosen in an instant, as snakes wound round a sandal tree slide off the moment a peacock comes near its middle.
Verse 9
गोस्वामिनि स्फुरिततेजसि दृष्टमात्रे चौरैरिवाशु पशवः प्रपलायमानैः ॥९॥
Transliteration:
mucyanta eva manujāḥ sahasā jinendra raudrairupadravaśataistvayi vīkṣite’pi |
gosvāmini sphuritatejasi dṛṣṭamātre caurairivāśu paśavaḥ prapalāyamānaiḥ ||9||
Meaning: People are freed at once from hundreds of fierce dangers merely by seeing you, as cattle are freed when thieves run off at the sight of the herd’s radiant master.
Verse 10
यद्वा दृतिस्तरति यज्जलमेष नूनमन्तर्गतस्य मरुतः स किलानुभावः ॥१०॥
Transliteration:
tvaṁ tārako jina kathaṁ bhavināṁ ta eva tvāmudvahanti hṛdayena yaduttarantaḥ |
yadvā dṛtistarati yajjalameṣa nūnamantargatasya marutaḥ sa kilānubhāvaḥ ||10||
Meaning: How do you carry beings across, Jina? It is those very people who, carrying you in their hearts, cross. Or take a water-skin: it floats across the water because of the air inside it, and that is its nature.
Verse 11
विध्यापिता हुतभुजः पयसाथ येन पीतं न किं तदपि दुर्धरवाडवेन ॥११॥
Transliteration:
yasmin haraprabhṛtayo’pi hataprabhāvāḥ so’pi tvayā ratipatiḥ kṣapitaḥ kṣaṇena |
vidhyāpitā hutabhujaḥ payasātha yena pītaṁ na kiṁ tadapi durdharavāḍavena ||11||
Meaning: Even Hara and the other great gods lost their force before that god of love; yet you put him down in a moment. Water put out the fires, and was it not drunk up in turn by the unbearable fire under the sea?
Hara and Hari. The names in verses 11 and 18 are the names of gods in other traditions. The poet’s point is the same in both: before the one who has ended desire, even the celebrated powers of the world are shown to be bound by it. It is a claim about liberation, not about anyone’s faith.
Verse 12
जन्मोदधिं लघु तरन्त्यतिलाघवेन चिन्त्यो न हन्त महतां यदि वा प्रभावः ॥१२॥
Transliteration:
svāminnanalpagarimāṇamapi prapannāstvāṁ jantavaḥ kathamaho hṛdaye dadhānāḥ |
janmodadhiṁ laghu tarantyatilāghavena cintyo na hanta mahatāṁ yadi vā prabhāvaḥ ||12||
Meaning: Lord, beings who take refuge in you, though your gravity is no small thing, how do they cross the ocean of birth so lightly, carrying you in the heart? The power of the great is beyond thought.
Verse 13
प्लोषत्यमुत्र यदि वा शिशिरापि लोके नीलद्रुमाणि विपिनानि न किं हिमानी ॥१३॥
Transliteration:
krodhastvayā yadi vibho prathamaṁ nirasto dhvastāstadā bata kathaṁ kila karmacaurāḥ |
ploṣatyamutra yadi vā śiśirāpi loke nīladrumāṇi vipināni na kiṁ himānī ||13||
Meaning: If anger was driven out by you first, lord, how then were the thieves of karma struck down? Look: frost, cold as it is, scorches the forests of blue trees.
Verse 14
पूतस्य निर्मलरुचेर्यदि वा किमन्यदक्षस्य संभवि पदं ननु कर्णिकायाः ॥१४॥
Transliteration:
tvāṁ yogino jina sadā paramātmarūpamanveṣayanti hṛdayāmbujakośadeśe |
pūtasya nirmalaruceryadi vā kimanyadakṣasya saṁbhavi padaṁ nanu karṇikāyāḥ ||14||
Meaning: Yogis always look for you, Jina, as the supreme self in the hollow of the heart-lotus. For one who is clean and pure, what other seat is there than the seed-cup of the lotus?
Verse 15
तीव्रानलादुपलभावमपास्य लोके चामीकरत्वमचिरादिव धातुभेदाः ॥१५॥
Transliteration:
dhyānājjineśa bhavato bhavinaḥ kṣaṇena dehaṁ vihāya paramātmadaśāṁ vrajanti |
tīvrānalādupalabhāvamapāsya loke cāmīkaratvamacirādiva dhātubhedāḥ ||15||
Meaning: By meditating on you, Jinesha, beings leave the body in a moment and enter the state of the supreme self, as metals in the world, under fierce fire, give up their stone-like state and become gold.
Verse 16
एतत्स्वरूपमथ मध्यविवर्तिनो हि यद्विग्रहं प्रशमयन्ति महानुभावाः ॥१६॥
Transliteration:
antaḥ sadaiva jina yasya vibhāvyase tvaṁ bhavyaiḥ kathaṁ tadapi nāśayase śarīram |
etatsvarūpamatha madhyavivartino hi yadvigrahaṁ praśamayanti mahānubhāvāḥ ||16||
Meaning: You are always held within by the worthy, Jina, and yet the body falls away; that is how it is with those who stand at the centre, for the greatly gifted quell vigraha, which means both body and strife.
A double meaning. Vigraha means both “body” and “quarrel” or “strife”. The line holds both at once: the body falls away, and so does the conflict it carried. Commentators set out the pun in different ways.
Verse 17
पानीयमप्यमृतमित्यनुचिन्त्यमानं किं नाम नो विषविकारमपाकरोति ॥१७॥
Transliteration:
ātmā manīṣibhirayaṁ tvadabhedabuddhyā dhyāto jinendra bhavatīha bhavatprabhāvaḥ |
pānīyamapyamṛtamityanucintyamānaṁ kiṁ nāma no viṣavikāramapākaroti ||17||
Meaning: Wise people who meditate on this soul as not different from you become you, here, by your power. Water thought of as nectar: does it not undo the effect of poison?
Verse 18
किं काचकामलिभिरीश सितोऽपि शङ्खो नो गृह्यते विविधवर्णविपर्ययेण ॥१८॥
Transliteration:
tvāmeva vītatamasaṁ paravādino’pi nūnaṁ vibho hariharādidhiyā prapannāḥ |
kiṁ kācakāmalibhirīśa sito’pi śaṅkho no gṛhyate vividhavarṇaviparyayeṇa ||18||
Meaning: Even rival thinkers, it seems, come to you, who are free of darkness, under the names of Hari, Hara and others. Does a white conch not appear in all kinds of wrong colours to a person with jaundiced eyes?
Verse 19
अभ्युद्गते दिनपतौ समहीरुहोऽपि किं वा विबोधमुपयाति न जीवलोकः ॥१९॥
Transliteration:
dharmopadeśasamaye savidhānubhāvādāstāṁ jano bhavati te tarurapyaśokaḥ |
abhyudgate dinapatau samahīruho’pi kiṁ vā vibodhamupayāti na jīvalokaḥ ||19||
Meaning: When you teach, lord, let people be moved by your nearness; even the tree becomes the ashoka, the one without sorrow. At the sun’s rising, does everything alive in the world not wake, trees included?
Eight signs. Verses 19 to 26 describe the eight pratiharyas, the standing marks of a Tirthankara’s assembly: the ashoka tree (19), the shower of flowers (20), the divine voice (21), the whisks (22), the lion throne (23), the halo (24), the drum (25) and the three umbrellas (26). The same eight are the structure of the middle of the Bhaktamar Stotra, where they run through verses 28 to 35.
Verse 20
त्वद्गोचरे सुमनसां यदि वा मुनीश गच्छन्ति नूनमध एव हि बन्धनानि ॥२०॥
Transliteration:
citraṁ vibho kathamavāṅmukhavṛntameva viṣvakpatatyaviralā surapuṣpavṛṣṭiḥ |
tvadgocare sumanasāṁ yadi vā munīśa gacchanti nūnamadha eva hi bandhanāni ||20||
Meaning: Strange, lord: how does an unbroken rain of divine flowers fall with the stalks turned down? Or perhaps, in your presence, the bonds of the good-minded (sumanas, which also means flowers) go down of themselves.
Verse 21
पीत्वा यतः परमसम्मदसङ्गभाजो भव्या व्रजन्ति तरसाप्यजरामरत्वम् ॥२१॥
Transliteration:
sthāne gabhīrahṛdayodadhisambhavāyāḥ pīyūṣatāṁ tava giraḥ samudīrayanti |
pītvā yataḥ paramasammadasaṅgabhājo bhavyā vrajanti tarasāpyajarāmaratvam ||21||
Meaning: It is right that people call your speech nectar, born of the depth of your heart’s ocean: drinking it, beings full of joy quickly reach the state beyond ageing and death.
Verse 22
येऽस्मै नतिं विदधते मुनिपुङ्गवाय ते नूनमूर्ध्वगतयः खलु शुद्धभावाः ॥२२॥
Transliteration:
svāmin sudūramavanamya samutpatanto manye vadanti śucayaḥ suracāmaraughāḥ |
ye’smai natiṁ vidadhate munipuṅgavāya te nūnamūrdhvagatayaḥ khalu śuddhabhāvāḥ ||22||
Meaning: Lord, the pure fly-whisks, bowing low and then rising, seem to say: those who bow to this best of sages will, with pure feelings, go upward.
Verse 23
आलोकयन्ति रभसेन नदन्तमुच्चैश्चामीकराद्रिशिरसीव नवाम्बुवाहम् ॥२३॥
Transliteration:
śyāmaṁ gabhīragiramujjvalahemaratnasiṁhāsanasthamiha bhavyaśikhaṇḍinastvām |
ālokayanti rabhasena nadantamuccaiścāmīkarādriśirasīva navāmbuvāham ||23||
Meaning: Devotees look at you, seated on the lion throne of bright gold and gems, dark in colour with a deep voice, as peacocks look at a fresh rain cloud over a golden mountain.
Verse 24
सान्निध्यतोऽपि यदि वा तव वीतराग नीरागतां व्रजति को न सचेतनोऽपि ॥२४॥
Transliteration:
udgacchatā tava śitidyutimaṇḍalena luptacchadacchaviraśokatarurbabhūva |
sānnidhyato’pi yadi vā tava vītarāga nīrāgatāṁ vrajati ko na sacetano’pi ||24||
Meaning: The ashoka tree, its leaves’ beauty put out by the circle of your radiance, grew dull. And in your nearness, free of passion as you are, who with a mind would not turn free of passion?
Verse 25
एतन्निवेदयति देव जगत्त्रयाय मन्ये नदन्नभिनभः सुरदुन्दुभिस्ते ॥२५॥
Transliteration:
bho bhoḥ pramādamavadhūya bhajadhvamenamāgatya nirvṛtipurīṁ prati sārthavāham |
etannivedayati deva jagattrayāya manye nadannabhinabhaḥ suradundubhiste ||25||
Meaning: “People, shake off heedlessness and honour this caravan leader on the way to the city of liberation.” So I think the divine drum, sounding in the sky, announces to the three worlds.
Verse 26
मुक्ताकलापकलितोल्लसितातपत्रव्याजात्त्रिधा धृततनुर्ध्रुवमभ्युपेतः ॥२६॥
Transliteration:
udyotiteṣu bhavatā bhuvaneṣu nātha tārānvito vidhurayaṁ vihatādhikāraḥ |
muktākalāpakalitollasitātapatravyājāttridhā dhṛtatanurdhruvamabhyupetaḥ ||26||
Meaning: In the worlds lit by you, the moon, whose work is taken from him, has surely come to you with the stars, taking three forms in the guise of three umbrellas strung with pearls.
A word on the text. The Shvetambara 1932 edition and its commentary read kalitocchvasita (“raised”) in the first half of this verse; the other books we consulted read kalitollasita (“shining”). We print the majority reading.
Verse 27
माणिक्यहेमरजतप्रविनिर्मितेन सालत्रयेण भगवन्नभितो विभासि ॥२७॥
Transliteration:
svena prapūritajagattrayapiṇḍitena kāntipratāpayaśasāmiva sañcayena |
māṇikyahemarajatapravinirmitena sālatrayeṇa bhagavannabhito vibhāsi ||27||
Meaning: Surrounded by three ramparts made of jewels, gold and silver, you shine, lord, as if the splendour, power and fame of the three worlds had been gathered and heaped around you.
Verse 28
पादौ श्रयन्ति भवतो यदि वापरत्र त्वत्सङ्गमे सुमनसो न रमन्त एव ॥२८॥
Transliteration:
divyasrajo jina namattridaśādhipānāmutsṛjya ratnaracitānapi maulibandhān |
pādau śrayanti bhavato yadi vāparatra tvatsaṅgame sumanaso na ramanta eva ||28||
Meaning: The divine garlands of the bowing lords of gods leave their jewelled crowns and cling to your feet. For those who have met you, the good-minded, like flowers, take no delight anywhere else.
Verse 29
युक्तं हि पार्थिवनिपस्य सतस्तवैव चित्रं विभो यदसि कर्मविपाकशून्यः ॥२९॥
Transliteration:
tvaṁ nātha janmajaladherviparāṅmukho’pi yattārayasyasumato nijapṛṣṭhalagnān |
yuktaṁ hi pārthivanipasya satastavaiva citraṁ vibho yadasi karmavipākaśūnyaḥ ||29||
Meaning: You have turned away from the ocean of rebirth, yet you carry across those who cling to your back, like a baked clay pot floating upside down. The wonder is that you, unlike the pot, are empty of the ripening of karma.
A clay-pot verse. The poet leans on a play of words around an earthen pot, which is baked in a fire and so “ripens”, while karma too is said to ripen (vipāka). Commentators unpack the wordplay in slightly different ways, and we give only the sense.
Verse 30
अज्ञानवत्यपि सदैव कथञ्चिदेव ज्ञानं त्वयि स्फुरति विश्वविकासहेतु ॥३०॥
Transliteration:
viśveśvaro’pi janapālaka durgatastvaṁ kiṁ vākṣaraprakṛtirapyalipistvamīśa |
ajñānavatyapi sadaiva kathañcideva jñānaṁ tvayi sphurati viśvavikāsahetu ||30||
Meaning: Lord of the universe, yet you seem to own nothing; imperishable by nature, yet no letter can write you. Though you stand among those who seem unknowing, knowledge shines in you, as the cause of the opening of the universe.
A verse of paradoxes. Each half-line sets two things side by side that seem not to fit: the lord of the universe who owns nothing, the imperishable that cannot be written. Commentators resolve them differently, and the translation is deliberately loose.
Verse 31
छायापि तैस्तव न नाथ हता हताशो ग्रस्तस्त्वमीभिरयमेव परं दुरात्मा ॥३१॥
Transliteration:
prāgbhārasambhṛtanabhāṁsi rajāṁsi roṣādutthāpitāni kamaṭhena śaṭhena yāni |
chāyāpi taistava na nātha hatā hatāśo grastastvamībhirayameva paraṁ durātmā ||31||
Meaning: The clouds of dust that wicked Kamatha raised in rage and spread across the sky: not even their shadow touched you, lord. It was he who was blackened by them.
The hinge of the hymn. Up to this point the hymn praises the Jina’s qualities. From verse 31 it tells the attack, and in verse 34 it turns to the worshipper. The next four verses, 35 to 38, are the poet’s own admission that he has not yet learnt to see what he is praising.
Verse 32
दैत्येन मुक्तमथ दुस्तरवारि दध्रे तेनैव तस्य जिन दुस्तरवारिकृत्यम् ॥३२॥
Transliteration:
yadgarjadūrjitaghanaughamadabhrabhīmaṁ bhraśyattaḍinmusalamāṁsalaghoradhāram |
daityena muktamatha dustaravāri dadhre tenaiva tasya jina dustaravārikṛtyam ||32||
Meaning: The impassable deluge he sent, roaring with heavy clouds, fearsome, with lightning like pestles and thick, dreadful streams: it only did the work of an enemy against himself.
Verse 33
प्रेतव्रजः प्रति भवन्तमपीरितो यः सोऽस्याभवत्प्रतिभवं भवदुःखहेतुः ॥३३॥
Transliteration:
dhvastordhvakeśavikṛtākṛtimartyamuṇḍaprālambabhṛdbhayadavaktraviniryadagniḥ |
pretavrajaḥ prati bhavantamapīrito yaḥ so’syābhavatpratibhavaṁ bhavaduḥkhahetuḥ ||33||
Meaning: A band of ghosts, hair shaken upward, faces twisted, wearing garlands of human skulls, fire pouring from their dreadful mouths, which he sent at you: in birth after birth it became the cause of his own suffering.
Verse 34
भक्त्योल्लसत्पुलकपक्ष्मलदेहदेशाः पादद्वयं तव विभो भुवि जन्मभाजः ॥३४॥
Transliteration:
dhanyāsta eva bhuvanādhipa ye trisandhyamārādhayanti vidhivadvidhutānyakṛtyāḥ |
bhaktyollasatpulakapakṣmaladehadeśāḥ pādadvayaṁ tava vibho bhuvi janmabhājaḥ ||34||
Meaning: Blessed are those, lord of the world, who worship your two feet at the three twilights as the rule says, setting other tasks aside, their bodies thrilled with devotion; they alone have a birth worth having.
Verse 35
आकर्णिते तु तव गोत्रपवित्रमन्त्रे किं वा विपद्विषधरी सविधं समेति ॥३५॥
Transliteration:
asminnapārabhavavārinidhau munīśa manye na me śravaṇagocaratāṁ gato’si |
ākarṇite tu tava gotrapavitramantre kiṁ vā vipadviṣadharī savidhaṁ sameti ||35||
Meaning: In this boundless ocean of existence, sage-lord, I think I never came within hearing of you. Had I heard the mantra of your hallowed name, would a calamity, like a snake, come anywhere near?
Verse 36
तेनेह जन्मनि मुनीश पराभवानां जातो निकेतनमहं मथिताशयानाम् ॥३६॥
Transliteration:
janmāntare’pi tava pādayugaṁ na deva manye mayā mahitamīhitadānadakṣam |
teneha janmani munīśa parābhavānāṁ jāto niketanamahaṁ mathitāśayānām ||36||
Meaning: I do not think, God, that in another birth I ever honoured your two feet, which can give what one longs for. That is why in this life, sage-lord, I have become the home of humiliations, my mind churned.
Verse 37
मर्माविधो विधुरयन्ति हि मामनर्थाः प्रोद्यत्प्रबन्धगतयः कथमन्यथैते ॥३७॥
Transliteration:
nūnaṁ na mohatimirāvṛtalocanena pūrvaṁ vibho sakṛdapi pravilokito’si |
marmāvidho vidhurayanti hi māmanarthāḥ prodyatprabandhagatayaḥ kathamanyathaite ||37||
Meaning: Surely I never once looked at you before, lord, with eyes veiled by the dark of delusion. Otherwise how could these misfortunes, pressing one after another, pierce me to the quick?
Verse 38
जातोऽस्मि तेन जनबान्धव दुःखपात्रं यस्मात् क्रियाः प्रतिफलन्ति न भावशून्याः ॥३८॥
Transliteration:
ākarṇito’pi mahito’pi nirīkṣito’pi nūnaṁ na cetasi mayā vidhṛto’si bhaktyā |
jāto’smi tena janabāndhava duḥkhapātraṁ yasmāt kriyāḥ pratiphalanti na bhāvaśūnyāḥ ||38||
Meaning: I have heard of you, worshipped you, even seen you, and yet I never held you in my mind with true feeling. That is why I have become a vessel of sorrow, friend of the world; actions empty of feeling do not bear fruit.
The turn in this verse. The verse says that hearing, worshipping and even seeing the Jina do not bear fruit unless they are held in the mind bhāva, with feeling. This is the same thought that Pratikraman rests on: an act counts for what the inner state of the person doing it makes of it.
Verse 39
भक्त्या नते मयि महेश दयां विधाय दुःखाङ्कुरोद्दलनतत्परतां विधेहि ॥३९॥
Transliteration:
tvaṁ nātha duḥkhijanavatsala he śaraṇya kāruṇyapuṇyavasate vaśināṁ vareṇya |
bhaktyā nate mayi maheśa dayāṁ vidhāya duḥkhāṅkuroddalanatatparatāṁ vidhehi ||39||
Meaning: Lord, friend to the unhappy, giver of refuge, dwelling of compassion and merit, best of the self-controlled: have mercy on me, who bow to you with devotion, and set yourself to uprooting the sprouts of my sorrow.
Verse 40
त्वत्पादपङ्कजमपि प्रणिधानवन्ध्यो वध्योऽस्मि चेद्भुवनपावन हा हतोऽस्मि ॥४०॥
Transliteration:
niḥsaṅkhyasāraśaraṇaṁ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyamāsādya sāditaripuprathitāvadātam |
tvatpādapaṅkajamapi praṇidhānavandhyo vadhyo’smi cedbhuvanapāvana hā hato’smi ||40||
Meaning: Having reached the refuge of all refuges, with its measureless excellence and its renowned purity, if I am still unable to hold steady attention on your lotus feet and am to be struck down, then alas, purifier of the world, I am lost.
Verse 41
त्रायस्व देव करुणाहृद मां पुनीहि सीदन्तमद्य भयदव्यसनाम्बुराशेः ॥४१॥
Transliteration:
devendravandya viditākhilavastusāra saṁsāratāraka vibho bhuvanādhinātha |
trāyasva deva karuṇāhṛda māṁ punīhi sīdantamadya bhayadavyasanāmburāśeḥ ||41||
Meaning: You who are worshipped by Indra, who know the nature of all things, ferry across the world, lord of the world: protect me, God, ocean of compassion, and purify me; I am sinking today in the sea of fearful troubles.
Verse 42
तन्मे त्वदेकशरणस्य शरण्य भूयाः स्वामी त्वमेव भुवनेऽत्र भवान्तरेऽपि ॥४२॥
Transliteration:
yadyasti nātha bhavadaṅghrisaroruhāṇāṁ bhakteḥ phalaṁ kimapi santatasañcitāyāḥ |
tanme tvadekaśaraṇasya śaraṇya bhūyāḥ svāmī tvameva bhuvane’tra bhavāntare’pi ||42||
Meaning: If, lord, there is any fruit at all to my long-gathered devotion to your lotus feet, then let it be this: that you alone, giver of shelter, be my refuge and my master in this world and in other births too.
What is actually asked. This is the one request in the hymn, and it is a small one: that the Jina be the refuge in this life and the next. It is not health or wealth. The hymn has spent forty verses saying what the Jina is, and asks only for one thing from that.
Verse 43
त्वद्बिम्बनिर्मलमुखाम्बुजबद्धलक्ष्या ये संस्तवं तव विभो रचयन्ति भव्याः ॥४३॥
Transliteration:
itthaṁ samāhitadhiyo vidhivajjinendra sāndrollasatpulakakañcukitāṅgabhāgāḥ |
tvadbimbanirmalamukhāmbujabaddhalakṣyā ye saṁstavaṁ tava vibho racayanti bhavyāḥ ||43||
Meaning: Thus, Jina, those good people who with steady minds and in due order, their bodies thrilled with joy, their eyes fixed on the clear lotus face of your image, compose this praise of you, lord,
Verse 44
ते विगलितमलनिचया अचिरान्मोक्षं प्रपद्यन्ते ॥४४॥
Transliteration:
jananayanakumudacandra prabhāsvarāḥ svargasampado bhuktvā |
te vigalitamalanicayā acirānmokṣaṁ prapadyante ||44||
Meaning: O moon to the night-lotuses that are the eyes of people: they become radiant; having enjoyed the wealth of the heavens, their stains gone, they soon reach liberation.
The last verse is in a different metre. Verses 1 to 43 are in the long, flowing Vasantatilaka metre, the same as the Bhaktamar Stotra. The last verse is in a short Āryā metre and shifts from address to blessing. Some editors read the compound jananayanakumudacandra as carrying the poet’s name, Kumudachandra.
Traditional Use
The tradition attaches the Kalyan Mandir to removing obstacles and fear, and it is often recited together with the Bhaktamar. It is also read on Parshvanatha observances such as Posh Dashami. We report these uses as tradition. The hymn is not a treatment for any condition, and it should never replace medical, legal or practical help; the books we consulted differ about the specific benefits attached to it, as the lists attached to the Bhaktamar do.
What is constant is the text. The most reliable reading of the hymn is the one it asks of its own reciter in verse 38: that the words be held in the mind with feeling, not only said.
Practising It the Jain Way
- Read a few verses at a time, with the meanings. Forty-four verses read slowly take about half an hour, and nothing is gained by hurrying.
- Verses 35 to 42 are the part to return to. They are the most personal, and they carry the central teaching of the hymn about feeling.
- If Sanskrit is difficult, say the Navkar Mantra and read the meaning of the verse. The tradition has always ranked understanding above pronunciation.
How This Text Was Established
The Kalyan Mandir is not on Wikisource and no critical edition is available online, so the sourcing rests on printed books scanned on archive.org. Because the text layer of old Devanagari scans is noisy, we used several books and compared each verse against all of them:
- Bhaktamara, Kalyanamandira and Namiuna, 1932, a Shvetambara edition with Sanskrit commentaries and an English rendering (Digital Library of India item 2015.327101).
- Kalyan-mandir Stotra, Hindi commentary by Upadhyay Amarchandra (Sthanakvasi), Sanmati Gyanpith, Agra (item 2015.441411).
- Kalyan Mandir Stotra, Veer Seva Mandir, Delhi, a Digambara edition with Hindi commentary (item 2015.427027).
- Kalyan Mandir Stotra or Parshvanath Stotra, Virendra Jain, from the eGangotri collection (archive.org item KalyanMandirStotraOrParshavNathStotraVirendraJain).
- Sachitra Bhaktamarat Stotra aur Kalyan Mandiradi Stotra, 1982 (item 2015.440792), a Gujarati-script book which we consulted but could not use for single words.
Each of the 44 verses was compared with each readable book. Where two or more books agreed on a reading that differed from our first draft, we changed the draft: this fixed two places (verse 2, dhūmaketos tasya, and verse 23, navāmbuvāham) and showed one genuine variant. The other differences in the text layers were the usual losses of a scanned Devanagari page, such as dropped r signs and anusvaras, and confusions between letters of similar shape. One variant is worth knowing:
- In verse 26 the Shvetambara 1932 edition and its commentary read kalitocchvasita (“raised”) and the other books read kalitollasita (“shining”). We print the majority reading.
The Sanskrit is in the Vasantatilaka metre throughout verses 1 to 43, and verse 44 is in the Arya metre, as the 1932 edition also records.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is the Kalyan Mandir Stotra?
It is a forty-four verse Sanskrit hymn in praise of Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara. It takes its name from its first words, kalyanamandiram udaram, which mean "a vast house of blessings".
↳ Who composed the Kalyan Mandir Stotra?
Shvetambara and Sthanakvasi books name Siddhasena Divakara, and the Digambara edition we consulted names Kumudachandra. The two names may belong to one man in the Shvetambara biography, but the attribution has been questioned, so it is best treated as traditional.
↳ How many verses does it have?
Forty-four. Verses 1 to 43 are in the Vasantatilaka metre and the last is in the Arya metre. Verses 1 and 2 form a single sentence.
↳ What is the story behind verses 31 to 33?
They refer to the tradition that Kamatha, a rival of Parshvanatha, attacked him in meditation with dust, rain and ghosts. The hymn says that none of it touched the Jina and that it all returned on Kamatha.
↳ How is it different from the Bhaktamar Stotra?
The Bhaktamar praises Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara, and the Kalyan Mandir praises Parshvanatha, the twenty-third. They are in the same metre, share the pattern of the eight pratiharyas and are often read together.