कर्पूरगौरं करुणावतारं

Karpuragauram Karunavataram

The Verse to Śiva at the Camphor Āratī

Dhyāna śloka to Śiva · upajāti
Sanskrit
A meditation verse on Śiva; the earliest dated text found to hold it is Jīvanātha’s Dīkṣāprakāśa (Kāśī, 1868)

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कर्पूरगौरं करुणावतारं संसारसारं भुजगेन्द्रहारम् ।
सदा वसन्तं हृदयारविन्दे भवं भवानीसहितं नमामि ॥

karpuragauram karunavataram sansarasaram bhujagendraharam |
sada vasantam hridayaravinde bhavam bhavanisahitam namami ||

कापरासारखे गौर, करुणेचे अवतार, संसाराचे सार, सर्पराजाचा हार धारण करणारे, सदैव हृदयकमळात वास करणारे, अशा भवानीसहित भवाला (शिवाला) मी नमस्कार करतो.

कपूर के समान गौर, करुणा के अवतार, संसार के सार, सर्पराज का हार धारण करने वाले, सदा हृदय-कमल में निवास करने वाले, भवानी सहित भव (शिव) को मैं नमस्कार करता हूँ।

White as camphor, compassion incarnate, the essence of worldly existence, with the king of serpents for a necklace, ever dwelling in the lotus of the heart: to Bhava, with Bhavānī, I bow.

Word by word (English) & note

कर्पूरगौरम्: white as camphor
करुणावतारम्: compassion incarnate
संसारसारम्: the essence of worldly existence
भुजगेन्द्रहारम्: whose necklace is the king of serpents
सदा: always
वसन्तम्: dwelling
हृदयारविन्दे: in the lotus of the heart
भवम्: Bhava: Śiva
भवानीसहितम्: together with Bhavānī
नमामि: I bow

Bhava is a name of Śiva, and Bhavānī, Bhava’s consort, is Pārvatī. Saṃsāra is the world of birth and death. The Dīkṣāprakāśa (on Wikisource, and in its 1934 and 2018 printings) reads सदा रमन्तं, ‘ever delighting [in the lotus of the heart]’; the Gita Press Āratī Saṅgraha and the Hiraṇyakeśīya Brahmakarma Samuccaya read सदा वसन्तं, ‘ever dwelling’, as the verse is commonly said, and that is the reading given here. Marathi āratī collections print a Marathi version under the heading कर्पूरारती: कर्पूरगौरा करुणावतारा संसारसारा भुजगेन्द्रहारा । सदा राहसी हृदयारविंदीं भवा भवानीसह तूज वंदी, ‘…you who always dwell in the lotus of the heart, Bhava, with Bhavānī, I bow to you’. The metre is upajāti: the first line is in indravajrā, the second in upendravajrā.

Karpuragauram Karunavataram · shlokpath.com/chant/karpuragauram/

Translations stay close to the words; words we supply are in [brackets]. Where a line is read in more than one way, the note beside it says so. How we edit → Found an error in this text? Tell us.

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परंपराProvenance

Unattributed

अज्ञात

Unattributed

Undated; in print by 1868

No author is known. The verse is often said to come from the Yajurveda (it circulates as the ‘Shiva Yajur Mantra’), or to have been sung by Viṣṇu at the wedding of Śiva and Pārvatī. Neither claim holds up. Its metre, upajāti, belongs to classical Sanskrit poetry, not to the Vedas, and a search of Sanskrit Wikisource, which holds the Śiva Purāṇa’s account of the wedding, finds the verse in one text only: the Dīkṣāprakāśa, a handbook of initiation and worship that Jīvanātha, a Maithil Brahmin, finished at Kāśī in 1868. There it is one of two meditation verses on Śiva in the worship of a clay liṅga. Jīvanātha says he drew on older Tantric works, so the verse may well be older, but where it began is not known.

Source

A meditation verse on Śiva; the earliest dated text found to hold it is Jīvanātha’s Dīkṣāprakāśa (Kāśī, 1868)

Text checked against

Sanskrit Wikisource: दीक्षाप्रकाशः, the ninth prakāśa (the worship of a clay liṅga), the base
The Dīkṣāprakāśa: the Kāśī printing of 1934, p. 105, and Shitala Prasada Upadhyaya’s edition (D. K. Printworld, 2018), read in scans
Gita Press, श्रीआरती-संग्रह, p. 40, under भगवान् शंकर, read in a scan
Hiraṇyakeśīya Brahmakarma Samuccaya (Nirṇaya Sāgar Press, catalogued as 1927), the devapūjā, at the camphor āratī, read in a scan

Context

The verse said in countless homes as the camphor is lit at the end of an āratī, whatever the deity. It sees Śiva as a meditation sees him: white as camphor, compassion embodied, the essence of the world, the king of serpents for his necklace, dwelling always in the lotus of the heart, with Bhavānī beside him. Printed pūjā books set it at the camphor āratī: the Hiraṇyakeśīya Brahmakarma Samuccaya, a Marathi Brahmin handbook of household rites, has it said as the camphor lamp is offered. Marathi āratī books also print a Marathi version of it, कर्पूरगौरा करुणावतारा.

Recited

The close of an āratī, as the camphor is waved
Worship of Śiva
Mahāśivarātri

उगमOrigin

Recited across IndiaWhere and when it was composed is unrecorded. The earliest dated text found to hold it is the Dīkṣāprakāśa, finished at Kāśī in 1868.