What an Aarti Is
An aarti is the offering of light. A lit lamp is waved in slow circles before a deity while a short hymn is sung, usually by everyone present. It is the part of Hindu worship that most people know by sight: the bell, the flame, the clapping, and a refrain the whole room can join. The word is explained as coming from the Sanskrit for "towards" and for "love", or from a word meaning "dispeller of darkness". This page gathers eighteen hymns of this kind and arranges them by the deity each one is sung to, so that a reader who wants the aarti of Hanuman or of the Goddess can go straight to it.
How an Aarti Is Sung
An aarti usually comes at the end of a puja, the act of worship in the home or temple. Our page on the daily puja describes it as sung or recited while the lit lamp is offered in a circle before the deity, followed by the sharing of the food that was offered, called prasad. The Satyanarayan puja likewise places the aarti after the reading of the katha, the sacred story. The lamp may be a small dish with a ghee-soaked wick, or camphor, which burns without leaving a trace. One of our pages notes that this is a traditional picture of the ego dissolving in devotion. Jain homes and temples have their own aarti to the Tirthankaras, described on the Jain daily aarti page; this collection holds the Hindu ones.
Aartis are made to be sung together, so most are short and built around a refrain. The best known, Om Jai Jagdish Hare, is in eight verses, each ending in the same line, and it is one of the first hymns many Hindus learn. It is traditionally dated to about 1870 and credited to Pandit Shraddha Ram Phillauri. Time of day matters too. Most are evening hymns, but the Kakad Aarti to Vitthal is sung before sunrise to wake the Lord gently, with thick cotton wicks soaked in ghee.
The Deities They Are Sung To
Krishna and Vishnu have the most aartis here. Krishna is praised in the Aarti Kunj Bihari Ki, as the one who delights in the groves of Vrindavan, and in the Banke Bihari aarti, sung to the playful form worshipped at the temple of that name there. Shyam Baba, worshipped at Khatu in Rajasthan, is a form of Krishna, and Radha has an aarti of her own. The Satyanarayana aarti closes the puja of that name.
Rama and Hanuman belong together. The Aarti of Rama is traditionally ascribed to Namdev, though that is the devotional tradition's attribution and not a certainty. The Aarti of the Ramayana is offered to the scripture itself and is ascribed to Tulsidas. The Hanuman aarti recalls his leap to Lanka and the Sanjivani herb he brought for Lakshmana.
In Maharashtra the central figure is Vitthal of Pandharpur. The evening Yuge Atthavis is ascribed to Namdev, and the dawn Kakad Aarti above belongs with it. Ghalin Lotangan is the Marathi prayer that follows the aarti. Our page says that households sing different combinations of its verses.
The Goddess is praised in Jai Ambe Gauri, widely sung at Navratri, and in the Marathi Durge Durghat Bhari. The short Sanskrit Akhilandadevi-Jambukeshvara Stuti is filed under this category on the site, though it is a hymn of praise and not an aarti in the strict sense.
The last group is of a different kind. The Sai Baba aarti, in Marathi, is credited to his devotee Madhavrao Adkar. The Chitragupta aarti is sung on Chitragupta Puja, two days after Diwali, and the Vishwakarma aarti by craftsmen at Vishwakarma Puja.
What the Words Promise
Several aartis end by saying that whoever sings them will receive happiness, prosperity or liberation. We report those lines as the hymn's own words and the tradition's belief. An aarti is first of all an offering of light and praise, and no result can be promised from it.
How This Page Is Arranged
The groups follow the deity, because that is how most readers look: Krishna, Vishnu and Radha; Rama and Hanuman; Vitthal; the Goddess; and a last group for Sai Baba, Chitragupta and Vishwakarma. Within a group the hymns are in alphabetical order, and each row says in a line what the hymn is.
Words You Will Meet
Aarti is the offering of a lit lamp with a sung hymn. Puja is worship, and prasad is food that has been offered and is then shared. A katha is a sacred story told aloud. Kakad is the dawn aarti with ghee wicks. A stuti is a hymn of praise, and a refrain is the line repeated after each verse. Navratri is the nine nights of the Goddess, and Namdev is a Warkari saint-poet of Maharashtra.
Did You Know?
An aarti is a lit lamp waved in circles before a deity while a short hymn is sung, usually at the end of a puja.
Om Jai Jagdish Hare has eight verses, each ending in the same line, and is traditionally credited to Pandit Shraddha Ram Phillauri, about 1870.
The Kakad Aarti to Vitthal is sung before sunrise to wake the Lord, with thick cotton wicks soaked in ghee.
Several aartis end with a promise of happiness for the singer; the pages report these as the hymn's own words, not as an assurance.
Krishna
Khatu Shyam Chalisa: 39 chaupai couplets between two dohas, naming Shyam (Barbarik) as Krishna's form and the saviour of devotees in Kali Yuga.
A forty-verse hymn glorifying Krishna's divine pastimes, recited by devotees seeking his protection, love, and liberation.
Eight verses and a closing benefit verse call on Vishnu by many names, each verse ending with a plea to Shripati to calm all sorrow.
Eight verses and a closing benefit verse that honor Vishnu as Krishna and Rama by listing his divine names, chanted for blessings and protection.
More from Hinduism
What a chalisa is, the verse forms it uses, and twelve chalisas arranged by the deity each one praises, with every hymn linked where the story names it.
What a stotra is, the forms it takes, and forty-five hymns arranged by the deity each one praises, with the best known linked where the story mentions them.
What an abhanga is, Pandharpur and the saints who sang of it, and thirty-two abhangas arranged by saint, with the best known linked in the story.
Charanamrit, or Padodaka, is the sacred water and Panchamrit that has washed the deity's feet during Abhishekam. Received with both hands, it is held to cleanse sin and remove spiritual ailments.
Lighting a diya initiates Hindu ritual, removing ignorance as the Upanishads describe, while fuel, wick, and direction each carry their own meaning.
Diwali is a five-day season at the Kartika new moon (October-November). This sets out the days, the Padma Purana and al-Biruni, and which stories are later.
Connected Teachings
The same teaching, echoed across traditions