Madhurashtakam (Adharam Madhuram): Sanskrit Text and Meaning

The Madhurashtakam (“the eight verses of sweetness”) is a short Sanskrit hymn to Krishna. Each of its eight verses is a list of the things about Krishna that are madhura, “sweet”, and each ends with the same line, madhuradhipater akhilam madhuram: “everything about the lord of Madhura is sweet”. Madhuradhipati can be read in two ways, and both are intended: “the lord of Mathura (Madhura)” and “the lord of sweetness”. The hymn begins adharam madhuram vadanam madhuram, “his lips are sweet, his face is sweet”.

The hymn is attributed to Vallabhacharya (about 1479 to 1531), the teacher who founded the Pushtimarg tradition of devotion to Krishna and who taught that the world and the self are real and belong to God. The attribution is traditional. The verses themselves name no author; the typed Wikisource text ends with a line naming Vallabhacharya. The hymn is sung very widely beyond that tradition, especially in kirtan, and the opening line is among the best-known in all Krishna devotion.

On this page you will find all eight verses in Devanagari with transliteration and a plain meaning, the three places where editions differ, and a note on how the text was checked. For other eight-verse hymns to Krishna see the Krishnashtakam and the Achyutashtakam.

The text, transliteration and meaning

The refrain is written out in every verse so that each can be read alone.

Text: Stotra Ratnavali (Gita Press, Gorakhpur; three printings), checked against the Prabhata Stotranidhi text, a typed Sanskrit Wikisource text and the Shlokam text. Transliteration is simplified; meanings are our own.

Where the editions differ

The hymn is a popular one, and we did not find it in any printed collection from before 1960 that we could read, so the choice of wording rests on four modern texts. They agree in every word but two places, and where they split two against two this page follows the Gita Press reading, as the sourcing rule for these pages says.

Verse 5, first line, last word. The Gita Press text (all three printings we read) and the Wikisource text read ramanam (“play, sport”). The Prabhata Stotranidhi and Shlokam texts read smaranam (“remembering”). This page gives ramanam, and the other reading is also in common use.

Verse 7, first line, second half. The Gita Press and Prabhata Stotranidhi texts read yuktam madhuram muktam madhuram (“his union is sweet, his freedom is sweet”). Shlokam reads yuktam madhuram bhuktam madhuram (“what he enjoys is sweet”), and the Wikisource text has a different second half, radha madhura milanam madhuram (“Radha is sweet, the meeting is sweet”). This page gives the Gita Press reading.

What the hymn is doing

Verse by verse, the poet moves from Krishna’s body (lips, face, eyes, smile, heart, gait) to his speech and conduct, then to the flute and the dance, then to everyday things (singing, eating, sleeping), then to his actions and play. The sixth verse widens the picture to the river Yamuna and its gunja-berry garland, the seventh to the cowherd women and the sweetness of union, the eighth to the cowherd boys, the cows and the whole of creation. The effect is that nothing near him is left out of the list, and the repeated line makes that the point: sweetness here is the quality of the whole of a life, and not only a feature of his looks.

The hymn also belongs to a school of thought which does not set the world against God. For the Pushtimarg, the world is God’s play, so a list of ordinary things (the river, the cows, a staff) can belong to praise. A reader from a different school may read the same words as a poem of devotion, which they are as well.

The text has no benefit verse and makes no promise of any result.

When it is sung

The Madhurashtakam is sung at Krishna temples, in kirtan, in satsang and at home. It is especially loved on Janmashtami (see the Janmashtami puja guide), and in Vrindavan and Mathura. It is short enough to sing in under two minutes and is often sung with the opening line as a refrain, so that the listeners join in. It sits well beside the Yamunashtakam, a hymn to the river that appears in its sixth verse.

Pronunciation notes

The word madhura is said ma-dhu-ra, with a breathy dh and a short a at the end, and in the refrain the last syllable of madhuram is a light m. The refrain is said ma-dhu-rā-dhi-pa-te-ra-khi-laṃ ma-dhu-ram. The word pateḥ before akhilam is said patēr akhilam, run together as patērakhilam. Ramaṇa and taraṇa have a retroflex ṇ, said with the tongue curled back. The ñ of guñjā is the ny of “canyon”.

How the text on this page is sourced

The Madhurashtakam is not in the Brihat Stotra Ratnakara or the other old prints we read, and the text on Sanskrit Wikisource was typed from a web page, so we could not find a printed edition from before 1960 to read. The page therefore follows the fourth level of the sourcing rule: modern editions compared word by word. We read the Gita Press Stotra Ratnavali in three printings, and compared it with the text of the Prabhata Stotranidhi (Stotranidhi), the text on Shlokam, and the typed text on Sanskrit Wikisource. Every word of the page is supported by at least two of these, and the three places where they differ are given above.

Related mantras and pages

• Krishnashtakam: eight verses to Krishna
• Achyutashtakam: eight verses to Achyuta
• Yamunashtakam: a hymn to the river Yamuna
• Aarti Kunj Bihari Ki: the aarti to Krishna as Kunj Bihari
• Janmashtami: the birth of Krishna, with dates for your city
• Janmashtami puja: how the puja is performed
• All mantras, stotras, chalisas and aartis

Frequently asked questions