Pauranic · पौराणिकMantra

Ganesha Gayatri

The gayatri of Ganesha as the Ganapati Atharvashirsha gives it, at section 8.

Ganapati Atharvashirsha 8edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

एकदन्ताय विद्महे वक्रतुण्डाय धीमहि । तन्नो दन्तिः प्रचोदयात् ॥

ekadantāya vidmahe vakratuṇḍāya dhīmahi । tanno dantiḥ pracodayāt ॥

Read in another script

No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

May we know the single-tusked one; may we meditate on the curved-trunk one. May the tusked one impel us.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Three padas of eight syllables, the Gayatri metre. वक्रतुण्डाय has a retroflex ṇḍ cluster in the middle — the tongue curls back for both. दन्तिः ends in a visarga, a light breath, and is not danti.

Repetitions: 3 · 11 · 108
Time: brahma muhurta, sunrise

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Word by word

एकदन्तायekadantāya: to the single-tusked one(dat. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.228
विद्महेvidmahe: may we know(1st pl. mid.)MW1899-CDSL p.963
वक्रतुण्डायvakratuṇḍāya: to the one with the curved trunk(dat. sg.)MW1899-CDSL p.911
धीमहिdhīmahi: may we meditate(1st pl. mid.)MW1899-CDSL p.516
तत्tat: that(acc. sg. n.)MW1899-CDSL p.432
नःnaḥ: us(acc. pl.)MW1899-CDSL p.123
दन्तिःdantiḥ

Context

There are two Ganesha gayatris in circulation and they are not the same verse. This one, from the Ganapati Atharvashirsha, opens ekadantāya vidmahe. The other, at Mahanarayana Upanishad 1.24, opens tatpuruṣāya vidmahe and continues identically — vakratuṇḍāya dhīmahi, tanno dantiḥ pracodayāt. The difference is not trivial. tatpuruṣāya is the generic opening shared by the whole Mahanarayana series, the frame that also serves Rudra, Nandi and Shanmukha. ekadantāya is specific to Ganesha and cannot be transplanted. So the Atharvashirsha version reads as the later and more sectarian of the two, a verse rewritten to belong to one deity alone. All three epithets name the same physical feature from different angles: one tusk, a curved trunk, and simply 'the tusked one'.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

chhanda: Gayatri
devata: Ganapati

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Clearing obstacles Ganesh Chaturthi Dhyana (meditation)

Classified as Pauranic — From the Puranas. Most widely recited deity mantras belong here. Basis for this classification.

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