A 51-second film · Awadhi, not Sanskrit
Sankat Mochan Hanumanashtak meaning.
The Sankat Mochan Hanumanashtak is a devotional hymn of eight verses to Hanuman, traditionally attributed to Tulsidas and written in Awadhi, not Sanskrit. Its opening verse tells how the child Hanuman swallowed the sun and darkened the three worlds, and its refrain gives him the name Sankat Mochan: the one who removes trouble.
Press play for sound. The film sets Anukriti’s modern recording over the printed words.
What the Hanumanashtak is, and what language it is in
Ashtak means “a set of eight”. The hymn is sung in praise of Hanuman as संकट मोचन, the remover of trouble. The Gita Press edition prints it in मत्तगयन्द metre.
The language is Awadhi, the literary dialect of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, written in Devanagari. It is not Sanskrit. You can hear the difference in the endings: Awadhi says अँधियारो and तिहारो where modern Hindi would say अँधियारा and तुम्हारा.
The attribution to Tulsidas is traditional rather than securely documented. Philip Lutgendorf discusses the question in Hanuman’s Tale(Oxford University Press, 2007), so this page says “attributed to Tulsidas” and gives no date.
Verse 1 · Gita Press, Sachitra Hanuman Chalisa (GP 2121), p. 18
बाल समय रबि भक्षि लियो तब तीनहुँ लोक भयो अँधियारो ।
bāla samaya rabi bhakṣi liyo taba tīnahuṁ loka bhayo aṁdhiyāro
In childhood he swallowed the sun, and the three worlds were left in darkness.
ताहि सों त्रास भयो जग को यह संकट काहु सों जात न टारो ।
tāhi soṁ trāsa bhayo jaga ko yaha saṁkaṭa kāhu soṁ jāta na ṭāro
Fear seized the world; this was a trouble no one could turn aside.
देवन आनि करी बिनती तब छाँड़ि दियो रबि कष्ट निवारो ।
devana āni karī binatī taba chāṁṛi diyo rabi kaṣṭa nivāro
The devas came and pleaded; he let the sun go, and the suffering ended.
को नहिं जानत है जगमें कपि संकटमोचन नाम तिहारो ॥१॥
ko nahiṁ jānata hai jagameṁ kapi saṁkaṭamocana nāma tihāro
Who in the world does not know, O Kapi, your name: Sankat Mochan, remover of trouble?
Verse 2, first line · the one-mark question
बालि की त्रास कपीस बसै गिरि जात महाप्रभु पंथ निहारो ।
bāli kī trāsa kapīsa basai giri jāta mahāprabhu paṁtha nihāro
In fear of Vali, the monkey-lord lives on the mountain, watching the road for the great Lord.
One small mark changes who hides
The Gita Press page prints बसै (basai), with no dot over the vowel sign. Many websites print बसैं (basaiṁ), with a nasal dot. In Awadhi the first is the singular, “he lives”, and the second a plural, “they live”.
The subject of the line is कपीस (kapīsa), “lord of the monkeys”: one figure, Sugriva, alone on the mountain in fear of his brother Vali, watching for Rama. The singular verb fits one person. The film puts it in one line: “He, alone, on the mountain.” That mark is what the film calls one mātrā.
What the film sings, and what the page prints
The film is set to Anukriti’s own modern recording. It does not sing the printed hymn line for line, so here is where the two agree and where they do not.
| As sung | Against the printed text |
|---|---|
| बाल समय रबि भक्षि लियो | Word for word from the first line of verse 1. |
| तीनों लोक अँधियारे | A paraphrase of तीनहुँ लोक भयो अँधियारो. |
| देवन आनि करी बिनती | Word for word from the third line. |
| फिर से भोर उजियारे | Anukriti’s own lyric, not the printed line (छाँड़ि दियो रबि कष्ट निवारो). |
| को नहीं जानत है जग में कपि / संकट मोचन नाम तिहारो | The printed refrain, in modern spelling (the page prints नहिं, जगमें, संकटमोचन). |
The बसै line from verse 2 is shown in the film as a reading note, not sung.
Pronunciation notes
- बसै against बसैं: the vowel is the same ai; the plural adds a nasal hum at the end. Chant the singular without it.
- भक्षि is bhakṣi: a clear k then ṣ, not a single “kh”. रबि keeps a short i.
- अँधियारो and तीनहुँ carry a light nasalisation (the candrabindu) on the vowel, with no closed n or m.
- छाँड़ि has the flapped ṛ (ड़): one quick tap of the tongue tip, not a full ḍ.
- संकट has a retroflex ṭ (tongue tip curled back), unlike the dental t in तिहारो. Because this is Awadhi, final -o endings stay -o: tihāro, not tihārā.
Chant it back, line by line
Anukriti plays the verse in a clear voice, listens as you chant it back, and shows which syllables drifted. On iOS and Android, as a subscription, with a few preview radio stations.
Sources: Gita Press Gorakhpur, Sachitra Shri Hanuman Chalisa (GP 2121), printed page 18, scan on the Internet Archive. Attribution: Philip Lutgendorf, Hanuman’s Tale (OUP, 2007). Meanings cross-checked against published translations.