The Navkar Mantra is five lines of Prakrit in which reverence is offered to five categories of being. It names no individual, belongs to no sect, mentions no deity, and requests nothing. It is the most widely recited text in Jainism and it is not a prayer, because there is nobody in it who could grant anything.
Almost every Jain learns it before learning what it says. It opens rites, closes them, fills samayik, is recited on a mala, is written above doorways, and is said aloud to the dying. This page gives the text, a literal translation, and the reason its grammar matters.
The text
The five padas
Namo Arihantanam
Namo Siddhanam
Namo Ayariyanam
Namo Uvajjhayanam
Namo Loe Savva Sahunam
I bow to the arihantas.
I bow to the siddhas.
I bow to the acharyas.
I bow to the upadhyayas.
I bow to all sadhus in the world.
Thirty-five syllables. That is the mantra proper.
Four further lines, the chulika, are almost always recited with it:
Eso pancha namokkaro, savva pava ppanasano Mangalanam cha savvesim, padhamam havai mangalam
This fivefold salutation destroys all sin; of all auspicious things it is the first and foremost auspicious.
Thirty-three syllables, making sixty-eight in all. The chulika is generally regarded as an addition to the five padas rather than part of the original, and it is grammatically different in kind: the five padas are salutations, while the chulika is a statement about them. Both traditions recite it. We flag the distinction because the two halves do different work, and the argument of this page turns on the difference.
The five: Panch Parameshthi
| Sanskrit | Who | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arihanta | One in whom omniscience has arisen and who still has a body: teaching, present, embodied. Also arhat, and in the fuller sense a Tirthankara |
| 2 | Siddha | One who is liberated: no body, no karma, no further birth. Beyond the world entirely |
| 3 | Acharya | The head of an ascetic order, exemplar and enforcer of conduct |
| 4 | Upadhyaya | The teacher of scripture within the order |
| 5 | Sadhu | Every ascetic, everywhere, without qualification |
These five are the Panch Parameshthi, the five supreme beings, and the mantra is also called the Panch Namaskara or Namaskara Mantra for that reason.
A question the tradition asks itself: why does the arihanta come before the siddha, when the siddha is the higher state? The received answer is that without the arihanta’s teaching nobody would know that the siddha state exists. The ordering is by pedagogical debt rather than by rank.
It names qualities, not persons
This is the feature that makes the mantra unusual among the world’s recited texts, and it is easy to read past.
Mahavira is not in it. Neither is Parshvanatha, nor Rishabhanatha, nor any of the twenty-four, nor any acharya of any lineage. There is no proper noun anywhere in the five padas. The salutation is to whoever occupies these states, at any time, in any place.
That has consequences the tradition takes seriously. The mantra is not sectarian: it contains nothing a Shvetambara affirms and a Digambara denies, or the reverse, which is why it is one of the very few texts the whole tradition holds in common without qualification. It is not temporally bound: it salutes arihantas who lived before recorded time and any who exist now. And the fifth line does not say “our” sadhus. Loe savva sahunam, all sadhus in the world, is universal by construction, and the commentaries read it as extending to ascetics outside the Jain fold who genuinely hold the discipline.
If the mantra named persons, it would be a lineage claim. Naming states makes it a description of what is worth revering, and leaves the question of who currently qualifies entirely open.
It asks for nothing
The five padas contain one verb: namo, I bow. There is no imperative, no optative, no request, no object sought. Nothing is asked for, and nothing is asked of anyone.
This is not an accident of phrasing. It follows from Jain doctrine, and the doctrine is unambiguous.
A siddha cannot act on your behalf. A liberated soul has no body, no karma and no relation to the world. It does not hear, does not attend, and does not intervene. There is no mechanism by which a petition could reach it and none by which a response could return.
An arihanta is beyond preference. Omniscience in Jain terms includes the destruction of the deluding karma that produces liking and disliking. A Tirthankara teaches; a Tirthankara does not favour, is not pleased by praise and is not injured by neglect.
There is no creator, no judge and no dispenser. Jain cosmology has no god who made the world, no god who runs it, and none who can be induced to alter a case. The Jain reading of a birth chart rests on the same foundation: the planets indicate karma already bound and cause nothing, because in this system nothing external causes anything about you.
So what does reciting it do? It works on the reciter. Reverence directed at states worth revering is itself an act, and in Jain karma theory acts of the soul are precisely what binds and sheds. Bahumana, genuine regard, is one of the eight disciplines of knowledge for exactly this reason. The chulika’s claim that the salutation destroys sin is a claim about the effect of the reciter’s own act, not about a favour granted by a recipient.
The honest caveat. A great deal of ordinary usage does treat the mantra petitionarily: recite it a set number of times for a result, before an examination, before surgery. That usage is real and widespread and we are not going to sneer at it. It is also not what the text says, and no Jain doctrinal source supports the transaction it implies. Both things are true at once.
Where the name comes from
Namaskara becomes namokkara in Prakrit, and navkar or namokar in later speech. That is the straightforward derivation and it is the one we would give.
A second reading is often heard: that nav means nine, for the nine padas of the mantra with its chulika. It is likely secondary, since the count of nine could not have applied before the chulika existed. We record both and prefer the first.
How old it is
The five padas are among the oldest continuously recited texts in India, and there are two anchors worth stating.
The Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharavela at Udayagiri in Odisha, generally dated to the second or first century BCE, opens with namo arahantanam namo savva-sidhanam: the first two salutations, in a form very close to the surviving one. That is a hard epigraphic floor.
The Shatkhandagama, the earliest surviving Digambara scripture, opens with the five padas as its mangalacharana, its auspicious invocation, placing the full fivefold form in a written text of the early centuries CE.
Neither tells us when it was composed, and we should not pretend otherwise. What they establish is that the salutation was already formulaic well before the sects took the shapes they now have, which is the likeliest explanation for why both hold it in common.
Where the traditions differ, and where they do not
They barely differ, and that is the point worth making.
The five padas are identical in Shvetambara and Digambara usage, in the same order, in the same Prakrit. Spelling varies between recensions, arihantanam against arahantanam, and such variants are dialectal rather than doctrinal. The chulika is recited by both, with minor variation in wording and with differing views in the commentarial literature about its status as an addition.
The differences that do exist are in use rather than in text. Digambara practice places the mantra inside the thrice-daily samayika and treats it as the standard mangalacharana opening a text or a discourse. Shvetambara practice makes heavier use of the 108-bead navkarvali for counted japa, and embeds the mantra at fixed points in the pratikraman liturgy.
How it is used
- Japa on a navkarvali of 108 beads, one recitation per bead
- Opening any rite, and by extension any undertaking: a journey, a meal, a piece of work
- Inside samayik, as one of the permitted contents of the forty-eight minutes
- At death. The mantra is recited aloud to a dying person, and the tradition holds the state of mind at the moment of death to be consequential. This is among its most important uses and the one least often mentioned in general accounts
- The Navpad. The five parameshthis plus four qualities, right perception, right knowledge, right conduct and austerity, make the nine padas of the siddhachakra, contemplated during the Navpad Oli twice a year. Those dates are on the Jain festivals 2026 page
Frequently asked questions
↳ What does the Navkar Mantra mean?
I bow to the arihantas, to the siddhas, to the acharyas, to the upadhyayas, and to all sadhus in the world. Five lines, thirty-five syllables, one verb. The four-line chulika usually recited after it states that this fivefold salutation destroys all sin and is the foremost of all auspicious things. The five padas are salutations; the chulika is a statement about them, and it is generally regarded as a later addition.
↳ Why does the Navkar Mantra not name any Tirthankara?
Because it salutes states rather than individuals. Mahavira is not in it, nor Parshvanatha, nor any of the twenty-four, nor any acharya of any lineage. There is no proper noun in the five padas. This is why the mantra is not sectarian, why it applies to arihantas of any era, and why the fifth line says all sadhus in the world rather than our sadhus. Naming persons would make it a lineage claim; naming states makes it a description of what is worth revering.
↳ Is the Navkar Mantra a prayer?
No. It contains one verb, namo, I bow, and requests nothing from anyone. Jain doctrine has no creator, no judge and no intervening deity; a siddha is liberated and has no relation to the world, and an arihanta has destroyed the karma that produces preference. Nobody in the mantra could grant anything. Reciting it works on the reciter, because in Jain karma theory the soul's own acts are what bind and shed. Popular usage does often treat it petitionarily, but no doctrinal source supports that.
↳ Who are the Panch Parameshthi?
The arihanta, one in whom omniscience has arisen while still embodied and teaching; the siddha, one who is liberated, without body or karma or further birth; the acharya, head of an ascetic order; the upadhyaya, the order's teacher of scripture; and the sadhu, every ascetic without qualification. The arihanta is placed before the siddha although the siddha state is higher, because without the arihanta's teaching nobody would know that the siddha state exists.
↳ How old is the Navkar Mantra?
Older than any date we can put on it. The Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharavela at Udayagiri, generally dated to the second or first century BCE, opens with the first two salutations in nearly the surviving form, and the Shatkhandagama opens with all five padas as its invocation in the early centuries CE. Those are floors, not origins. What they show is that the salutation was already formulaic before the sects took their present shapes, which is the likeliest reason both hold it in common.
↳ Do Shvetambara and Digambara Jains recite the same Navkar Mantra?
Yes, and it is one of the very few texts on which that can be said without qualification. The five padas are identical in order and wording, with only dialectal spelling variation between recensions. Both recite the chulika, with minor differences in wording and in commentarial views of its status. What differs is use: Digambara practice sets it inside the thrice-daily samayika and uses it as the standard invocation opening a text, while Shvetambara practice makes heavier use of counted japa on a 108-bead navkarvali.
Related
- Samayik: forty-eight minutes of equanimity
- Pratikraman: the six avashyaks
- Michhami Dukkadam: what the words actually mean
- Chaumasa: the four-month retreat
- Jain festivals 2026, month by month
- What Jain astrology actually is
Sources. The five padas are given in the standard Ardhamagadhi Prakrit form in plain transliteration without diacritics; the rendering is ours and is intended to be literal rather than devotional. The syllable counts of thirty-five for the five padas and thirty-three for the chulika are as conventionally given and are verifiable by inspection. The chulika is described as a probable addition rather than as part of the original because that is the general view in the commentarial and scholarly literature, not because either tradition omits it in practice. The Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela at Udayagiri opens with the first two salutations; its date is contested within roughly the second to first centuries BCE and is given here as a range. The Shatkhandagama opens with the five padas as its mangalacharana. Neither is offered as a date of composition, only as a floor. The namaskara to namokkara to navkar derivation is preferred here over the reading of nav as nine, on the ground that the count of nine presupposes the chulika; both are recorded. The doctrinal argument that the mantra is non-petitionary follows from the standard Jain positions on the siddha state, the destruction of mohaniya karma in an arihanta, and the absence of a creator; the widespread petitionary usage is reported rather than endorsed or condemned. Corrections are seva: tell us.