Samudra Vasane Devi: Lyrics and Meaning
समुद्रवसने देवि
Traditional
Samudra Vasane Devi is a one-verse Sanskrit prayer to the Earth, said on waking before the feet touch the ground. It greets the Earth as a goddess whose garment is the ocean and whose breast is the mountains, calls her the wife of Vishnu (Bhūdevī), and asks her pardon for the touch of the feet.
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Verse
समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते ।विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे ॥
Samudravasane devi parvatastanamanditeVishnupatni namastubhyam padasparsham kshamasva me
IAST
samudravasane devi parvatastanamaṇḍite |viṣṇupatni namastubhyaṃ pādasparśaṃ kṣamasva me ||
In simple wordsO Mother Earth, you are a goddess who wears the ocean like a dress, and the mountains make you beautiful. O wife of Vishnu, we bow to you, and we ask you to forgive us for touching you with our feet.
For grown-ups: our full explanation Word by word: samudra-vasane, O you whose garment is the ocean; devi, O goddess; parvata-stana-maṇḍite, adorned with the mountains as her breasts (the 1910 book reads parvata-stana-maṇḍale, "whose breasts are the mountains"); viṣṇu-patni, O wife of Vishnu; namaḥ tubhyam, salutation to you; pāda-sparśam, the touch of the feet; kṣamasva, forgive; "me", "my" (the speaker's). The verse greets the Earth as a goddess clothed by the oceans and adorned with the mountains as her breasts, and as the wife of Vishnu. It then asks her to forgive the touch of the speaker's feet. The 1910 book places it right after looking at the hands on waking, before stepping onto the ground.
हिंदी अर्थ शब्दार्थ: समुद्रवसने, हे समुद्र रूपी वस्त्र वाली; देवि, हे देवी; पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते, पर्वत रूपी स्तनों से सुशोभित (1910 की पुस्तक में पर्वतस्तनमंडले, "पर्वत ही जिनके स्तन-मंडल हैं"); विष्णुपत्नि, हे विष्णु की पत्नी; नमस्तुभ्यं, आपको नमस्कार; पादस्पर्शं, पैरों का स्पर्श; क्षमस्व, क्षमा करें; मे, "मेरा" या "मुझे"। श्लोक का भाव: पृथ्वी को देवी कहकर प्रणाम किया गया है, जो समुद्रों को वस्त्र की तरह पहने हैं, पर्वत रूपी स्तनों से सुशोभित हैं और जो विष्णु की पत्नी हैं; फिर उनसे बोलने वाले के पैरों के स्पर्श के लिए क्षमा माँगी गई है। 1910 की पुस्तक में यह जागकर हाथ देखने के ठीक बाद, धरती पर पैर रखने से पहले आता है।
Word by word
Every word, with its dictionary page
Word by word
- समुद्रवसने samudravasane · O you whose garment is the ocean (compound, vocative singular) Dictionary: samudra-vasana, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1167, col. 1 “sea-clothed, sea-girt (the earth)”
- देवि devi · O goddess (noun (feminine), vocative singular) Dictionary: devī, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 496, col. 1 “a female deity, goddess”
- पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते parvatastanamaṇḍite · adorned with the mountains as breasts (compound, vocative singular (feminine)) Dictionary: parvata, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 609, col. 1 “a mountain, mountain-range, height, hill, rock”; stana, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1257, col. 2 “the female breast”; maṇḍita, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 775, col. 3 “adorned, decorated”
- विष्णुपत्नि viṣṇupatni · O wife of Vishnu (compound, vocative singular) Dictionary: viṣṇu, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 999, col. 1 “N. of one of the principal Hindū deities”; patnī, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 582, col. 2 “a wife”
- नमः namaḥ · bowing, salutation (noun (neuter), nominative singular) Dictionary: namas, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 528, col. 1 “bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, adoration”
- तुभ्यम् tubhyam · to you (pronoun, dative singular) Dictionary: 2. tva, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 463, col. 2 “base of the 2nd personal pron.”
- पादस्पर्शम् pādasparśam · the touch of the feet (compound, accusative singular) Dictionary: pāda, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 617, col. 1 “the foot (of men and animals)”; sparśa, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 1269, col. 1 “touch, sense of touch”
- क्षमस्व kṣamasva · forgive (imperative, 2nd person singular) Dictionary: 1. kṣam, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 326, col. 2 “pardon, forgive anything”
- मे me · "my" or "me" (pronoun, genitive or dative singular) Dictionary: 1. mad, Monier-Williams 1899, p. 777, col. 2 “base of the first pers. pron. in the sg. number”
3 printings differ
Edition differences. Another printing or text reads this place differently.
- The printed edition reads: समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमंडले ।
विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे ॥ २ ॥ The book's running verse number '२' (this is verse 2 of its morning prayers) is dropped; the verse stands alone here. - Word The 1910 Pune printing reads: समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमंडले । विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे ॥ The base printing (leaf n9) reads 'पर्वतस्तनमंडले' ('whose breasts are the mountains'). The display follows 'पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते', the reading of the 1916 digest and of today's Gita Press book (decision 14, applied 15 Oct 2026).
- Word The 1895 Bombay printing reads: समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमण्डले ॥ विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे 'पर्वतस्तनमण्डले' as in the 1910 book (with ण् where the 1910 book has the anusvara), p. 124, leaf n135. Its footnote 3 records the reading shown here: 'पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते इति धर्माब्धिसारधृतः पाठः' (the reading quoted in the Dharmābdhisāra).
O thou ocean-girdled, mountain-breasted goddess! I salute thee, O thou Consort of Vishnoo! Forgive me, thy suckling. O Mother, this my touching thee with my feet!
Sanskrit text: Bhaktimārgapradīp (भक्तिमार्गप्रदीप), a book of daily prayers, Sanskrit verses and Marathi saint-poetry, edited and published by Laxman Ramchandra Pangarkar, 1910. Meanings: written for Pujadeep and checked against the cited edition. Source and changes
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Samudra Vasane Devi
समुद्रवसने देवि पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते ।
विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे ॥
Samudravasane devi parvatastanamandite
Vishnupatni namastubhyam padasparsham kshamasva me
Word by word: samudra-vasane, O you whose garment is the ocean; devi, O goddess; parvata-stana-maṇḍite, adorned with the mountains as her breasts (the 1910 book reads parvata-stana-maṇḍale, "whose breasts are the mountains"); viṣṇu-patni, O wife of Vishnu; namaḥ tubhyam, salutation to you; pāda-sparśam, the touch of the feet; kṣamasva, forgive; "me", "my" (the speaker's). The verse greets the Earth as a goddess clothed by the oceans and adorned with the mountains as her breasts, and as the wife of Vishnu. It then asks her to forgive the touch of the speaker's feet. The 1910 book places it right after looking at the hands on waking, before stepping onto the ground.
(Meaning written for Pujadeep and checked against the cited edition.)
Text: Laxman Ramchandra Pangarkar (Mumukshu office), Pune, 1910 (public domain).
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About the Samudra Vasane Devi
The verse is traditional and has no named author. It is read here from Bhaktimargapradip, a Marathi book of daily prayers printed in Pune in 1910, where it follows Karagre Vasate Lakshmi under the heading "looking at the hands and greeting the earth". An 1895 Bombay book gives it for the same moment with the words "with this mantra, bow to the earth", and a 1916 Bombay digest quotes it from an older work, the Madanapārijāta, under "touching the earth".
An English rendering printed in New York in 1904 by Baba Premanand Bharati is shown beside the verse. It is a free rendering: it adds "thy suckling" and "O Mother".
How to say it
The verse writes a final "m" as a dot (anusvāra): तुभ्यं, पादस्पर्शं, which the IAST line writes "tubhyaṃ", "pādasparśaṃ". The dot stands for the final "m" of the word: "tubhyam", "pādasparśam". The compound "parvata-stana-maṇḍite" is said as one word.
More daily prayers: on waking, before study, before meals and at lamp-lighting
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Questions families ask
Who wrote the Samudra Vasane Devi?
Traditional.
Which text does this page follow?
Sanskrit text: Bhaktimārgapradīp (भक्तिमार्गप्रदीप), a book of daily prayers, Sanskrit verses and Marathi saint-poetry, edited and published by Laxman Ramchandra Pangarkar, 1910. Meanings: written for Pujadeep and checked against the cited edition. See the source
Source and licence
- Text
- Bhaktimārgapradīp (भक्तिमार्गप्रदीप), a book of daily prayers, Sanskrit verses and Marathi saint-poetry, edited and published by Laxman Ramchandra Pangarkar (Laxman Ramchandra Pangarkar, Laxman Ramchandra Pangarkar (Mumukshu office), Pune, 1910). 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.
- Updated
- October 27, 2026