The Logassa is seven short verses that name the twenty-four Tirthankaras one by one and then praise the liberated ones as a group. It is also called the Chaturvimshati-stava, the “praise of the twenty-four”, and in Shvetambara practice it is the second of the six daily duties of pratikraman. It is the text that Shvetambara Jains most often count their breaths against.
This page gives the Prakrit text, a transliteration, a meaning, a table that links each name to its Tirthankara, and an honest note on the sources.
The Text
अरिहंते कित्तइस्सं चउवीसं पि केवली ॥१॥
Transliteration:
logassa ujjoagare dhamma-titthayare jiṇe |
arihaṁte kittaissaṁ cauvīsaṁ pi kevalī ||1||
Meaning: I shall praise the illuminators of the world, the founders of the dharma ford, the Jinas, the Arihantas, all twenty-four of the omniscient ones.
पउमप्पहं सुपासं जिणं च चंदप्पहं वंदे ॥२॥
Transliteration:
usabhamajiyaṁ ca vaṁde saṁbhavamabhiṇaṁdaṇaṁ ca sumaī ca |
paumappahaṁ supāsaṁ jiṇaṁ ca caṁdappahaṁ vaṁde ||2||
Meaning: I bow to Rishabha and Ajita; to Sambhava, to Abhinandana and to Sumati; I bow to Padmaprabha, to Suparshva the Jina, and to Chandraprabha.
विमलमणंतं च जिणं धम्मं संतिं च वंदामि ॥३॥
Transliteration:
suvihiṁ ca pupphadaṁtaṁ sīala-sijjaṁsa-vāsupujjaṁ ca |
vimalamaṇaṁtaṁ ca jiṇaṁ dhammaṁ saṁtiṁ ca vaṁdāmi ||3||
Meaning: To Suvidhi, who is also called Pushpadanta; to Shitala, Shreyansa and Vasupujya; to Vimala and Ananta the Jina; to Dharma and to Shanti: I bow.
वंदामि रिट्ठनेमिं पासं तह वद्धमाणं च ॥४॥
Transliteration:
kuṁthuṁ araṁ ca malliṁ vaṁde muṇisuvvayaṁ namijiṇaṁ ca |
vaṁdāmi riṭṭhanemiṁ pāsaṁ taha vaddhamāṇaṁ ca ||4||
Meaning: To Kunthu, Ara and Malli I bow; to Munisuvrata and to Nami the Jina; I bow to Aristanemi, to Parshva, and likewise to Vardhamana.
चउवीसं पि जिणवरा तित्थयरा मे पसीयंतु ॥५॥
Transliteration:
evaṁ mae abhitthuā vihuya-raya-malā pahīṇa-jara-maraṇā |
cauvīsaṁ pi jiṇavarā titthayarā me pasīyaṁtu ||5||
Meaning: Thus have I praised them, those who have shaken off the dust of karma and are free of old age and death: may the twenty-four best of Jinas, the Tirthankaras, be gracious to me.
आरुग्ग-बोहिलाभं समाहिवरमुत्तमं दिंतु ॥६॥
Transliteration:
kittiya-vaṁdiya-mahiyā je e logassa uttamā siddhā |
ārugga-bohilābhaṁ samāhivaramuttamaṁ diṁtu ||6||
Meaning: Those who are praised, honoured and worshipped, who are the highest in the world, the Siddhas: may they grant me health, the gain of awakening, and the best and highest samadhi, the settled calm of the mind.
सागरवर-गंभीरा सिद्धा सिद्धिं मम दिसंतु ॥७॥
Transliteration:
caṁdesu nimmalayarā āiccesu ahiyaṁ payāsayarā |
sāgaravara-gaṁbhīrā siddhā siddhiṁ mama disaṁtu ||7||
Meaning: More spotless than the moons, more brightly illuminating than the suns, deep as the greatest of oceans: may the Siddhas grant me perfection.
The meanings are our own, kept close to the Prakrit. The names are in the Prakrit forms used in the hymn, so a few look unfamiliar: Abhiṇaṁdaṇa, Suvihi, Sijjaṁsa and Riṭṭhanemi are more often met as Abhinandananatha, Suvidhinatha, Shreyansanatha and Neminatha.
The Twenty-Four Names
The hymn runs through the Tirthankaras in the order of this age, one name after another, with no gaps. Each name below links to its page on this site.
| No. | In the Logassa | Tirthankara |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Usabha | Rishabhanatha |
| 2 | Ajiya | Ajitanatha |
| 3 | Saṁbhava | Sambhavanatha |
| 4 | Abhiṇaṁdaṇa | Abhinandananatha |
| 5 | Sumaī | Sumatinatha |
| 6 | Paumappaha | Padmaprabha |
| 7 | Supāsa | Suparshvanatha |
| 8 | Caṁdappaha | Chandraprabha |
| 9 | Suvihi (Pupphadaṁta) | Suvidhinatha |
| 10 | Sīala | Shitalanatha |
| 11 | Sijjaṁsa | Shreyansanatha |
| 12 | Vāsupujja | Vasupujya |
| 13 | Vimala | Vimalanatha |
| 14 | Aṇaṁta | Anantanatha |
| 15 | Dhamma | Dharmanatha |
| 16 | Saṁti | Shantinatha |
| 17 | Kuṁthu | Kunthunatha |
| 18 | Ara | Aranatha |
| 19 | Malli | Mallinatha |
| 20 | Munisuvvaya | Munisuvrata |
| 21 | Nami | Naminatha |
| 22 | Riṭṭhanemi | Neminatha |
| 23 | Pāsa | Parshvanatha |
| 24 | Vaddhamāṇa | Mahavira |
The nineteenth name shows where the traditions part. The Shvetambara tradition holds that Malli was a woman; the Digambara tradition does not, and the Digambara second duty uses a different Prakrit hymn for the praise of the twenty-four. The Logassa itself says only malliṁ, a form that does not state the sex, and the Mallinatha page tells the story.
What to Notice
It begins with light. The first word after the opening is ujjoagare, the “makers of light”. The Tirthankaras are called illuminators of the world before they are called saviours, which is the right order in a tradition where a teacher shows the way and does not walk it for you.
The grammar changes in the last two verses. Until verse 5 the hymn addresses the Tirthankaras as a list of names. Verses 6 and 7 turn to the Siddhas, the liberated souls in general, and the praise becomes a set of comparisons: spotless like the moon, bright like the sun, deep like the sea. The sentence structure is simple, but the order of the images moves from gentle to vast.
The request is small and specific. The final lines ask for health, awakening and samadhi, and then for siddhi, perfection. Jain commentators usually take the health here as freedom from the disease of rebirth and not only bodily health, and treat the lines as aspiration rather than petition, since the Jinas and Siddhas are liberated and do not bestow. The same reading is made for the other hymns in this series.
How It Is Used
The Logassa is the text of the second avashyak and is recited in full in pratikraman and comes up again at several points in the rite. It is also the usual unit for counting a kayotsarga, the motionless standing meditation: a pratikraman manual of 1914 which we consulted gives “one Logassa or four Navkars” as alternative measures of a single kayotsarga, and our Pratikraman page records twenty-five breaths as the common measure for the standard one. It also turns up on observances such as Posh Dashami, where counted kayotsargas of the Logassa are kept, and it sits close to the samayik that opens the six duties.
We report these as practices that vary by sangh, not as rules for you. If you are learning it, one verse a week is more than enough, and the table above makes the names easier to remember.
How This Text Was Established
The Logassa is not on Wikisource and there is no critical edition online, so the sourcing rests on printed books scanned by the Digital Library of India on archive.org. We read the base text from a clean Hindi pratikraman manual and checked it verse by verse against older printed books:
- Devasia Raia Pratikraman Sutra, Babulal Jaysinghlal Mehta, 1953 (item 2015.307076), read directly as the base text.
- Panchapratikramanadisutrani, Shri Jain Shreyaskar Mandal, Mehsana, printed at Nirnaya Sagar Press, 1914 (item 2015.553632).
- Panch Pratikraman Sutra Sahvidhi, 1916 (item 2015.549872), and a second 1917 volume of the same title (item 2015.549873), whose text layer is too noisy to confirm single words.
The text layer of the older books is noisy, so they were used to confirm the verses and to decide between readings, never as the only witness. All seven verses agree across the books apart from spelling. Three points are worth knowing:
- Verse 2 reads sumaī ca (“and Sumati”) in all three books that could be read; some editions print sumaiṁ ca. We follow the printed books.
- The Prakrit spells the same sound with or without the glide y: ujjoagare in our text, ujjoyagare in some editions, and sīala for sīyala. This is spelling, not a different word.
- Verse 5 reads abhitthuā (“praised”) in the books we consulted; other editions write it abhithuā. We follow the books.
We did not use the Gujarati-script scans we found, because their text layer was too poor to read.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is the Logassa Sutra?
It is a seven-verse Prakrit hymn that names the twenty-four Tirthankaras and then praises the Siddhas. It is the Shvetambara text for the second of the six avashyaks of pratikraman, the praise of the twenty-four, also called the Chaturvimshati-stava.
↳ How many verses does the Logassa have?
Seven. The first verse introduces the Tirthankaras, verses 2 to 4 name all twenty-four, verse 5 asks them to be gracious, and verses 6 and 7 praise the Siddhas.
↳ What does Logassa mean?
It is the first word of the hymn, and it means "of the world". The opening line praises the makers of light for the world. Like many Jain texts, the hymn is known by its first word.
↳ Why is it used to count kayotsarga?
The Logassa has a fixed length, so reciting it silently gives a fixed measure of time for standing meditation. Manuals give one Logassa or four Navkars as alternative measures, and practice varies by sangh.
↳ Do Digambaras recite the Logassa?
It is the Shvetambara form of the second duty. The Digambara pratikraman carries its own Prakrit hymn for the praise of the twenty-four, so the same duty is kept with a different text.