The Bhaktamar Stotra is the most beloved devotional hymn in the Jain tradition: forty-eight verses (forty-four in the Shvetambara recension) in flowing Vasantatilaka meter, composed by Acharya Manatunga in praise of Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara. Tradition tells that Manatunga, chained and locked away by a skeptical king, recited the hymn and a chain broke with every verse.
This series studies the stotra one verse at a time: the exact Sanskrit, a careful transliteration, the meaning, and the uses tradition has attached to each verse. A few honest notes that frame every article in the series:
- The legend has versions. The king is named Bhoja, Vriddhabhoja, or Harsha depending on the teller; the chains number 48 or 44 by sect. We tell the story as a story.
- Date: scholars place the composition around the 6th-7th century CE; estimates have varied widely, and the earliest surviving commentary (Gunakara’s) is from the 14th century.
- 44 vs 48 verses: the four verses in question sit between stanzas 31 and 36 and complete the description of the eight pratiharyas. The oldest known manuscript (1332 CE, Patan) has 44; the Digambara tradition’s consistent 48-yantra practice argues for 48. We present both without declaring a winner.
- Mantras and yantras vary. Each verse carries an associated riddhi-mantra and yantra in the ritual tradition, but the manuals differ. Where we quote a riddhi or mantra, we cite which modern tradition it comes from; none of it is canonical scripture.
- Bhaktamar is not a planetary remedy text. The verse-by-verse healing tradition maps verses to life difficulties, not to grahas; Jain graha-shanti uses a separate Navagraha Shanti Stotra. Anyone telling you “verse X fixes Saturn” is innovating, not transmitting.