Hanuman Chalisa

The Hanuman Chalisa is Tulsidas’s forty-verse hymn to Hanuman — “chalisa” from chalis, forty — and today the most recited prayer-text in Hinduism, chanted daily by millions and sung by every popular devotional musician of the language.

Content

The forty doha-caupai verses invoke Hanuman’s names, deeds, and powers — his strength, wisdom, service to Rama, mastery over fear and ghosts — and close with the famous promises: the reciter who takes Hanuman’s name crosses every difficulty (“asankhya?” — the closing doha’s guarantee of fruit). Its opening doha (“the filth of the mirror of the mind…”) has entered common speech as the very model of a prayer’s humility.

Significance

The Chalisa is the mass-level scripture of Rama-bhakti: learned in childhood, recited at dawn, chanted in fear and in hope, set to every musical register from temple bell to film soundtrack. Its 2013 Delhi performance (the “Chalisa sung by lakhs” event) displayed its scale.

Verification notes

• Attribution to Tulsidas is traditional and near-universally accepted; the exact year within his Varanasi period is uncertain.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).