Upanishads · Rudrahṛdaya 17
॥
Devanāgarī
कीर्तनात्सर्वदेवस्य सर्वपापैः प्रमुच्यते । रुद्रो नर उमा नारी तस्मै तस्यै नमो नमः
Transliteration (IAST)
kīrtanātsarvadevasya sarvapāpaiḥ pramucyate | rudro nara umā nārī tasmai tasyai namo namaḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
कीर्तनात् सर्व-देवस्यkīrtanāt sarva-devasyafrom chanting the all-god
सर्व-पापैः प्रमुच्यतेsarva-pāpaiḥ pramucyateone is freed from all sins
रुद्रः नरः उमा नारीrudraḥ naraḥ umā nārīRudra — the husband, Umā — the wife
तस्मै तस्यै नमः नमःtasmai tasyai namaḥ namaḥto him and to her, homage, homage
Translation
"From chanting the all-god, one is freed from all sins. Rudra — the husband, Umā — the wife: to him and to her, homage, homage."
Version
b7b442667326 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Namaskāra, a string of bows, begins, and it will occupy seven lines (17–23); it is built in such a way that its construction is worth examining at once. Every line names a pair: he — and she; and every time it adds tasmai tasyai namo namaḥ, "to him and to her, homage, homage." The pronouns stand in two genders — masculine and feminine — and in the dative case: not "to them," but "to him and to her."
This grammatical detail is the most important thing in the whole string. One bows to the two separately, not to one composite being; and language here does not allow them to be fused, even where the whole book leans toward fusion. The first pair — the simplest and, to my mind, the finest — is: rudro nara umā nārī, "Rudra — the man, Umā — the woman." Not principles, not powers, not guṇas, but a man and a woman; and it is with this that the string begins.
The Vaiṣṇava side is not surprised by such a beginning, for she has the same. The highest is described there through a couple, and all her books, having reached the limit, name two: Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, Sītā and Rāma, Lakṣmī and Nārāyaṇa. And the order of these names, worth noting, usually places the woman's name first — Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Sītā-Rāma.
The final namo namaḥ, "homage, homage," is doubled; and this doubling in hymns signifies not intensification, but repetition: the bow is not made once.