🙏Aarti

About Aarti

An aarti is a song sung while a lamp is circled before an image, and it is the one part of Hindu worship that is performed by everybody in the room rather than by a specialist. The mantras of a puja are Sanskrit and belong to whoever has been trained to say them. The aarti is vernacular — Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil — and belongs to the congregation, which sings it from memory, in unison, with a bell going. The ritual around the song is older and more formal than the songs themselves: the lamp is the dipa of the five-fold offering, circled clockwise in customary patterns, and the flame is afterwards carried to the assembly so each person can pass their palms over it and touch them to their eyes. Camphor is often used because it burns away leaving no residue, which the tradition reads as the point. This page covers the ritual first and the texts second, because the ritual is what the songs were written to accompany.

Sacred Texts

Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki — The Hanuman aarti — his deeds in sequence, and a signature that does not fit

Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki

The Hanuman aarti — his deeds in sequence, and a signature that does not fit

Aarti Kunj Bihari Ki — The Krishna aarti — in Braj, and nothing like the others

Aarti Kunj Bihari Ki

The Krishna aarti — in Braj, and nothing like the others

Aarti Shri Ramayan Ji Ki — The aarti performed to the Ramcharitmanas itself, not to a deity

Aarti Shri Ramayan Ji Ki

The aarti performed to the Ramcharitmanas itself, not to a deity

Ghalin Lotangan — The Marathi closing prayer — five separate texts, sung as one

Ghalin Lotangan

The Marathi closing prayer — five separate texts, sung as one

Jai Adhya Shakti — Gujarat's Navratri aarti — fifteen verses, one per lunar day

Jai Adhya Shakti

Gujarat's Navratri aarti — fifteen verses, one per lunar day

Jai Ambe Gauri — The Navratri aarti — and the fiercest iconography in household worship

Jai Ambe Gauri

The Navratri aarti — and the fiercest iconography in household worship

Jai Lakshmi Mata — Diwali's aarti — and a claim about wealth that is not the obvious one

Jai Lakshmi Mata

Diwali's aarti — and a claim about wealth that is not the obvious one

Jai Santoshi Mata — The aarti of a goddess made national by a 1975 film

Jai Santoshi Mata

The aarti of a goddess made national by a 1975 film

Om Jai Gange Mata — The Ganga aarti — and why the famous ceremony is not it

Om Jai Gange Mata

The Ganga aarti — and why the famous ceremony is not it

Om Jai Jagdish Hare — The most-sung Hindu aarti — written c. 1870, made universal by a film

Om Jai Jagdish Hare

The most-sung Hindu aarti — written c. 1870, made universal by a film

Om Jai Saraswati Mata — The Vasant Panchami aarti — and its one genuinely difficult verse

Om Jai Saraswati Mata

The Vasant Panchami aarti — and its one genuinely difficult verse

Om Jai Shiv Omkara — The Shiva aarti that is really an argument about the Trimurti

Om Jai Shiv Omkara

The Shiva aarti that is really an argument about the Trimurti

Shani Dev Aarti — The Saturday aarti — the text, the tradition, and no remedies

Shani Dev Aarti

The Saturday aarti — the text, the tradition, and no remedies

Sukhkarta Dukhharta — Maharashtra's Ganesh aarti — 17th century, and Ramdas signs it himself

Sukhkarta Dukhharta

Maharashtra's Ganesh aarti — 17th century, and Ramdas signs it himself

Guides

Aarti — A song for a lamp — and the only part of a puja with no specialist

Aarti

A song for a lamp — and the only part of a puja with no specialist

Marathi Aarti — Maharashtra's aarti tradition — a fixed sequence, and named poets

Marathi Aarti

Maharashtra's aarti tradition — a fixed sequence, and named poets