श्री हनुमान चालीसा
If there's one prayer that cuts across every region, language, and tradition in India, it's this one. Tulsidas wrote these forty verses in Awadhi, not Sanskrit, not for scholars, but for everyone. They tell the story of Hanuman: the one who leapt across the ocean, carried a mountain, and never once asked for anything in return. People chant the Chalisa when they're afraid, when they need courage, when nothing else works. Millions do it daily, especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays. There's a reason it's survived five centuries. These verses just work.
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Chant all 44 verses →The opening verses are below.
श्री गुरु चरण सरोज रज निजमन मुकुर सुधारि वरणौ रघुवर विमल यश जो दायक फलचारि
बुद्धिहीन तनु जानिके सुमिरौ पवनकुमार बल बुद्धि विद्या देहु मोहि हरहु कलेश विकार
जय हनुमान ज्ञानगुणसागर
जय कपीश तिहु लोक उजागर
रामदूत अतुलित बलधामा
अंजनिपुत्र पवनसुत नामा
महावीर विक्रम बजरंगी
कुमति निवार सुमति के संगी
बुद्धिहीन तनु जानिके सुमिरौ पवनकुमार बल बुद्धि विद्या देहु मोहि हरहु कलेश विकार
The Chalisa in its original Devanagari
Tulsidas composed the Hanuman Chalisa in Awadhi, a dialect of Hindi, in the early sixteenth century, and the script he would have used was Devanagari, which is the version you see below. He frames Hanuman as Shankar Suvan, the son or partial form of Shiva, which is why much of the North Indian tradition treats the Chalisa as a Shaiva-leaning Vaishnava text, a Rudravatara in service of Rama. Sankat Mochan Mandir in Varanasi, founded by Tulsidas himself at the spot where he had his vision of Hanuman, remains the spiritual home of the Chalisa, with thousands gathering every Tuesday and Saturday. Hanuman Garhi in Ayodhya and Salasar Balaji in Rajasthan are the two other great centres of this North Indian Chalisa tradition: the first inside the Rama-Sita landscape, the second known for the unusual whiskered murti and Rajasthani folk practice.