Nilanjana Samabhasam: Lyrics and Meaning
नीलांजन समाभासं
Traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa, as part of the Navagraha Stotra
Nilanjana Samabhasam is a one-verse Sanskrit prayer to Shani, the god of the planet Saturn. It is the seventh verse of the Navagraha Stotra, a hymn of nine verses that bows in turn to each of the nine grahas: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. Because it is the verse to Shani, it is often called the Shani mantra.
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Verse
नीलांजनसमाभासं रविपुत्रं यमाग्रजम् ।छायामार्तंडसंभूतं तं नमामि शनैश्चरम् ॥
Nilanjanasamabhasam raviputram yamagrajamChhayamartandasambhutam tam namami shanaishcharam
IAST
nīlāṃjanasamābhāsaṃ raviputraṃ yamāgrajam |chāyāmārtaṃḍasaṃbhūtaṃ taṃ namāmi śanaiścaram ||
Our explanation The verse bows to Shani. His lustre is like dark-blue collyrium (nīlāñjana, the dark pigment put round the eyes). He is Raviputra, the son of Ravi, the Sun. He is Yamāgraja, the elder brother of Yama. He was born of Chhaya ("Shadow") and Martanda, the Sun. The speaker ends: "I bow to that Shanaishchara", the slow-moving one, a name of Shani.
हिंदी अर्थ यह श्लोक शनि को प्रणाम करता है। उनकी आभा नील अंजन, यानी आँखों में लगाए जाने वाले गहरे नीले-काले काजल, जैसी है। वे रविपुत्र हैं, यानी रवि (सूर्य) के पुत्र। वे यमाग्रज हैं, यानी यम के बड़े भाई। उनका जन्म छाया और मार्तंड, यानी सूर्य, से हुआ। अंत में बोलने वाला कहता है: "उन शनैश्चर को मैं प्रणाम करता हूँ"। शनैश्चर, यानी धीरे चलने वाले, शनि का एक नाम है।
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Word by word
- नीलांजनसमाभासम् nīlāṃjanasamābhāsam · whose lustre is like dark collyrium (compound (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: nīlâñjana, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 566, col. 3 “black antimony”; añjana, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 11, col. 1 “black pigment or collyrium applied to the eyelashes or the inner coat of the eyelids”; 2. sama, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1152, col. 1 “same, equal, similar, like, equivalent”; ā-bhāsa, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 145, col. 2 “colour, appearance”
- रविपुत्रम् raviputram · the son of Ravi (the Sun) (compound (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: ravi, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 869, col. 1 “the sun (in general) or the sun-god”; putra, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 632, col. 3 “a son, child”
- यमाग्रजम् yamāgrajam · the elder brother of Yama (compound (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: yama, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 846, col. 1 “N. of the god who presides over the Pitṛis”; agra-ja, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 6, col. 2 “born first or earlier; (as), m. the first-born, an elder brother”
- छायामार्तंडसंभूतम् chāyāmārtaṃḍasaṃbhūtam · born of Chhaya and Martanda (the Sun) (compound (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: chāyā, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 406, col. 1 “‘Shadow,’ (like Saṃjñā) wife of the sun and mother of the planet Saturn”; mārtaṇḍa, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 813, col. 1 “the sun or the god of the sun”; sam-bhūta, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1179, col. 2 “become, born, produced or arisen or proceeding from”
- तम् tam · him, that one (pronoun (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: tad, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 434, col. 1 “he, f. she, n. it, that, this”
- नमामि namāmi · "I bow to" (present, 1st person singular) Dictionary: nam, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 528, col. 1 “to bend or bow … to bow to, subject or submit one's self”
- शनैश्चरम् śanaiścaram · Shanaishchara, the slow-moving one (Shani) (noun (masculine), accusative singular) Dictionary: śanaiś-cara, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1051, col. 3 “the planet Saturn or its regent (cf. śani)”
2 printings differ
Edition differences. Another printing or text reads this place differently.
- The printed edition reads: नीलांजनसमाभासं रविपुत्रं यमाग्रजम् ।
छायामार्तंडसंभूतं तं नमामि शनैश्चरम् ॥ ७ ॥ The book's running verse number '७' (this is verse 7 of the Navagraha Stotra) is dropped; the verse stands alone here. The printing sets the verses as running prose and breaks यमाग्रजम् across a line with a hyphen ('यमा-' / 'ग्रजम्'); the two lines of the verse are laid out here. - Word Today's text from Gita Press, Gorakhpur reads: नीलाम्बुजसमाभासं Gita Press, Nityakarma-pujaprakash, p. 229 (leaf n238): in the invocation of Shani in the Navagraha worship, where the verse is adapted for the rite ('… छायामार्तण्डसम्भूतं शनिमावाहयाम्यहम्', 'I invoke Shani'). nīlāmbuja means 'the blue lotus'. The same book's Navagraha Stotra (p. 328, leaf n337) prints नीलाञ्जनसमाभासं, as the display does.
Sanskrit text: Brihat Stotra Ratnakara (बृहत्स्तोत्ररत्नाकरः), illustrated (सचित्रः), an anthology of 180 Sanskrit hymns; fifth edition, 1904. Meanings: written for Pujadeep and checked against the cited edition. Source and changes
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Nilanjana Samabhasam
नीलांजनसमाभासं रविपुत्रं यमाग्रजम् ।
छायामार्तंडसंभूतं तं नमामि शनैश्चरम् ॥
Nilanjanasamabhasam raviputram yamagrajam
Chhayamartandasambhutam tam namami shanaishcharam
The verse bows to Shani. His lustre is like dark-blue collyrium (nīlāñjana, the dark pigment put round the eyes). He is Raviputra, the son of Ravi, the Sun. He is Yamāgraja, the elder brother of Yama. He was born of Chhaya ("Shadow") and Martanda, the Sun. The speaker ends: "I bow to that Shanaishchara", the slow-moving one, a name of Shani.
(Meaning written for Pujadeep and checked against the cited edition.)
Text: Nirnaya Sagar Press (Tukaram Javaji), Bombay, 1904 (public domain).
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About the Nilanjana Samabhasam
The verse names Shani in four ways and then bows to him. His lustre is like nīlāñjana, the dark collyrium put round the eyes. He is the son of Ravi, the Sun. He is the elder brother of Yama. He was born of Chhaya ("Shadow") and Martanda, the Sun. The last words are "I bow to that Shanaishchara", a name of Shani that means "the one who moves slowly".
The hymn is traditionally said to be the work of the sage Vyasa: the printing ends it with "thus ends the Navagraha Stotra composed by the revered Vyasa". The verse is read here from the Brihat Stotra Ratnakara, an anthology of Sanskrit hymns printed by the Nirnaya Sagar Press in Bombay; this is its fifth edition, of 1904, where the hymn is no. 169 on p. 354. The 1899 and 1912 editions of the same book, and a Bombay anthology printed by the Shri Venkateshwar Press in 1905, have the same words. Present-day books print it with the same words too. Only the verse to Shani is given here.
Under the verse, a word-by-word list gives every word with a short meaning in English and Hindi, and its entry in Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), with the page and column, so the meaning can be checked in the printed book.
How to say it
The 1904 printing writes the nasal before a consonant as a dot (anusvāra): नीलांजन, मार्तंड, संभूतं, which the IAST line writes "nīlāṃjana", "mārtaṃḍa", "saṃbhūtaṃ". Each is spoken as the nasal of the next consonant: "nīlāñjana", "mārtaṇḍa", "sambhūtam". The final "ṃ" before "t" (saṃbhūtaṃ taṃ) is spoken as "n" or a nasal "m". "Śanaiścara" has the soft "sh" of "shine" twice: sha-naish-cha-ra.
When it is recited
Saturday (Shanivar) is Shani's day of the week.
- Weekdays: Saturday
More prayers to Shani and to the Sun, his father
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Questions families ask
Who wrote the Nilanjana Samabhasam?
Traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa, as part of the Navagraha Stotra.
When is the Nilanjana Samabhasam recited?
Saturday (Shanivar) is Shani's day of the week.
Which text does this page follow?
Sanskrit text: Brihat Stotra Ratnakara (बृहत्स्तोत्ररत्नाकरः), illustrated (सचित्रः), an anthology of 180 Sanskrit hymns; fifth edition, 1904. Meanings: written for Pujadeep and checked against the cited edition. See the source
Source and licence
- Text
- Brihat Stotra Ratnakara (बृहत्स्तोत्ररत्नाकरः), illustrated (सचित्रः), an anthology of 180 Sanskrit hymns; fifth edition (Nirnaya Sagar Press (Tukaram Javaji), Bombay, 1904). Public domain. The Sanskrit on these pages was read from this printing’s page images.
- Our explanation
- Explanation written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against the cited edition. It is not a translation and not the only way to read the text. Free to quote with credit.
- Checked
- Checked against the cited edition, October 15, 2026.