Pauranic · पौराणिकDhyana shloka

Hanumad Dhyanam (Markandeya Purana)

The Puranic dhyana of Hanuman, which describes him emerald-green rather than saffron-red.

Hanumad Dhyanam, Markandeya Purana verse 1edition

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

मरकतमणिवर्णं दिव्यसौन्दर्यदेहं नखरदशनशस्त्रैर्वज्रतुल्यैः समेतम् । तडिदमलकिरीटं मूर्ध्नि रोमाङ्कितं च हरितकुसुमभासं नेत्रयुग्मं सुफुल्लम् ॥

marakatamaṇivarṇaṃ divyasaundaryadehaṃ nakharadaśanaśastrairvajratulyaiḥ sametam । taḍidamalakirīṭaṃ mūrdhni romāṅkitaṃ ca haritakusumabhāsaṃ netrayugmaṃ suphullam ॥

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Meaning

Of the colour of an emerald, his body divinely beautiful, armed with claws and teeth that are the equal of the thunderbolt, a spotless crown like lightning on his head, marked with hair, with a pair of wide-open eyes bright as green blossom.

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

Four lines in *mālinī*, the first of three verses in the sequence. Slow, as a visualisation rather than a japa.

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”.

Context

A dhyana verse carried in the *Markandeya Purana*, and a useful corrective to the assumption that Hanuman is always red. Here he is **मरकतमणिवर्णं** — the colour of an emerald — with eyes bright as green flowers. The saffron-and-sindoor Hanuman that dominates North Indian images is a devotional development, not the only textual description, and the Puranic verses preserve older and stranger colour schemes. The claws and teeth described as *vajra-tulyaiḥ*, equal to the thunderbolt, are his weapons in this verse; the mace comes later.

Shadanga — the six limbs

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

devata: Hanuman

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Dhyana (meditation)

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

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