EkOmkaar

Dashavatara Stotra | प्रलय पयोधि जले — Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda | Lyrics & Meaning

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by

Nandita Ashok
in

About This Song

जय जगदीश हरे — victory to the Lord of the universe. Nine hundred years ago, on the banks of a river in Odisha, the poet Jayadeva opened his immortal Gita Govinda not with a love song, but with a bow. Before the flute, before Radha, before the moonlit groves of Vrindavan — first, the ten forms. The Dashavatara Stotra is that opening: eleven verses that walk through every shape the Divine has taken to save the world, from a fish in the waters of dissolution to a rider on a white horse at the end of time.

In this EkOmkaar Musicals rendition, the ancient Sanskrit is carried by a refrain that belongs to every heart — गोपाल कृष्ण — so that as each avatar is named, the singer is returned again and again to the same source. Ten forms, one Keshava. Ten stories, one song.

Lyrics — दशावतार स्तोत्र

ध्रुवपद (Refrain)

प्रलय पयोधि जले गोपाल कृष्ण
धृतवानसि वेदं
विहित वहित्र चरित्रमखेदम् ।
केशव धृत मीन शरीर
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ १ ॥

क्षितिरति विपुलतरे गोपाल कृष्ण
तव तिष्ठति पृष्ठे
धरणि धरण किण चक्र गरिष्ठे ।
केशव धृत कच्छप रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ २ ॥

वसति दशन शिखरे गोपाल कृष्ण
धरणी तव लग्ना
शशिनि कलङ्क कलेव निमग्ना ।
केशव धृत सूकर रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ३ ॥

तव कर कमल वरे गोपाल कृष्ण
नखमद्भुत शृङ्गं
दलित हिरण्यकशिपु तनु भृङ्गम् ।
केशव धृत नरहरि रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ४ ॥

छलयसि विक्रमणे गोपाल कृष्ण
बलिमद्भुत वामन
पद नख नीर जनित जन पावन ।
केशव धृत वामन रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ५ ॥

क्षत्रिय रुधिरमये गोपाल कृष्ण
जगदपगत पापं
स्नपयसि पयसि शमित भव तापम् ।
केशव धृत भृगुपति रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ६ ॥

वितरसि दिक्षु रणे गोपाल कृष्ण
दिक्पति कमनीयं
दशमुख मौलि बलिं रमणीयम् ।
केशव धृत रघुपति रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ७ ॥

वहसि वपुषि विशदे गोपाल कृष्ण
वसनं जलदाभं
हल हति भीति मिलित यमुनाभम् ।
केशव धृत हलधर रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ८ ॥

निन्दसि यज्ञविधेरहह गोपाल कृष्ण
श्रुति जातं
सदय हृदय दर्शित पशु घातम् ।
केशव धृत बुद्ध शरीर
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ९ ॥

म्लेच्छ निवह निधने गोपाल कृष्ण
कलयसि करवालं
धूमकेतुमिव किमपि करालम् ।
केशव धृत कल्कि शरीर
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ १० ॥

श्री जयदेव कवेरिदमुदितमुदारं
शृणु सुखदं शुभदं भवसारम् ।
केशव धृत दशविध रूप
जय जगदीश हरे ॥ ११ ॥

Meaning of the Lyrics

१. मत्स्य — The Fish. When the waters of dissolution swallowed the world, you became a boat and carried the Vedas safely across, effortlessly, without weariness. Glory to Keshava, who took the body of a fish.

२. कूर्म — The Tortoise. The vast earth rests upon your back, and the churning has left its mark — a circular scar from bearing the mountain. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of a tortoise.

३. वराह — The Boar. The earth clings to the tip of your tusk like the dark mark that rests within the moon. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of a boar.

४. नरसिंह — The Man-Lion. On your beautiful lotus hand the nails become a wondrous peak, tearing open Hiranyakashipu as easily as a flower is torn by a bee. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of the man-lion.

५. वामन — The Dwarf. Wondrous dwarf, you deceive Bali with a stride — and from the water touched by your toenail flows the Ganga, purifying all people. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of the dwarf.

६. परशुराम — The Axe-Bearer. You bathe the world free of sin in the waters of the warriors’ blood, and quench the burning fever of worldly existence. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of Bhrigupati.

७. राम — The Prince of Raghu. In battle you distribute in all directions, as an offering pleasing to the guardians of the quarters, the beautiful crowned heads of the ten-faced one. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of Raghupati.

८. बलराम — The Plough-Bearer. On your radiant body you wear a garment the colour of a rain cloud — the hue of the Yamuna, who fled trembling before the blow of your plough. Glory to Keshava, who took the form of the plough-bearer.

९. बुद्ध — The Awakened One. With a heart full of compassion you reject the sacrificial injunctions of the scriptures, seeing in them the slaughter of animals. Glory to Keshava, who took the body of the Buddha.

१०. कल्कि — The Rider at the End of Time. To end the multitude of the corrupt, you wield a sword — terrible and blazing, like a comet crossing the sky. Glory to Keshava, who took the body of Kalki.

११. The Poet’s Seal. Listen to this noble hymn uttered by the poet Shri Jayadeva — giver of joy, giver of auspiciousness, the very essence of existence. Glory to Keshava, holder of the ten forms.

History & Devotion

Jayadeva composed the Gita Govinda in the twelfth century, and it changed the sound of Indian devotion forever. Written in Sanskrit but shaped for singing, with each verse marked by its raga and tala, it is arguably the first great song-cycle of bhakti — the ancestor of every bhajan, kirtan and abhang that came after it. The Dashavatara Stotra stands at its very threshold, the invocation before the love story begins.

For centuries this hymn has been sung at the Jagannath temple in Puri as part of the daily seva, and it travelled far beyond — into Odissi and Bharatanatyam repertoires, into Kerala’s Sopana Sangeetham, into Assam’s namghars, into the morning prayers of countless homes. Its ten verses became the standard by which the avatars are remembered, and the phrase जय जगदीश हरे passed so deeply into common devotion that it now opens one of the most widely sung aartis in India.

What makes the stotra beloved is not only its scholarship but its tenderness. Jayadeva does not merely list the avatars — he paints them. The earth clinging to a tusk like the shadow in the moon. A demon opened like a blossom by a bee. A river turning pale with fear. And running underneath all of it, one quiet insistence: Keshava dhrita — Keshava took this form. Ten times the world was in danger, and ten times the same love came wearing a different shape.

In this rendition the interwoven refrain गोपाल कृष्ण makes that insistence audible. Whatever form is being named — fish, tortoise, boar, lion, dwarf, warrior, prince, ploughman, sage, or rider — the singer keeps returning to the cowherd of Vrindavan. The many become the one, and the one remains.

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