Overview
Om Hanumate Namah is one of the simplest and most widely used mantras addressed to Hanuman — a direct bow, offered by name, without a request attached. It says only what its three words mean: Om, to Hanuman, salutation.
Origin and source
This mantra follows a template repeated across Hindu devotional practice: Om, a deity’s name shifted into the dative case, and namaḥ, “salutation.” The same pattern underlies “Om Namah Shivaya” and “Om Gam Ganapataye Namah” elsewhere in daily recitation, with only the name at the center changing. Read this way, “Om Hanumate Namah” isn’t traced to one specific canonical verse of its own — it’s the standard salutation formula turned toward Hanuman, and it appears in exactly this short form across mantra compilations, chant recordings, and everyday devotional print.
Hanumate is the dative of Hanumat, built from hanu, “jaw” — the same root behind the traditional account of how Hanuman received his name. A longer, more elaborate salutation, “Om Namo Bhagavate Hanumate Namah,” also circulates devotionally; it keeps this same closing (hanumate namaḥ) but adds “namo bhagavate,” an additional salutation to Hanuman as the blessed or divine one, before it.
Word-by-word meaning
Tap a word to see what it means and where it sits in the verse.
Om — the primordial syllable, prefixed to countless Sanskrit mantras as their opening sound
| Sanskrit | IAST | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ॐ | oṃ | Om — the primordial syllable, prefixed to countless Sanskrit mantras as their opening sound |
| हनुमते | hanumate | to Hanuman (dative of Hanumat/Hanuman) |
| नमः | namaḥ | salutation, obeisance, bowing down (from the root nam, "to bend, to bow") |
Meaning of the whole
Taken together, the mantra reads plainly: Om, to Hanuman, salutation. Namaḥ is a bow rather than a petition, and hanumate simply names who the bow is offered to. Nothing in the mantra asks Hanuman for anything specific — like the other short bow-and-name mantras in daily practice, it is devotion expressed as a direct, uncomplicated act of address.
How it is recited
Om Hanumate Namah is chanted as japa, typically in rounds of 108 on a mala, following the general convention used for mantra repetition. It is recited in home worship, before undertakings associated with Hanuman’s strength and protection, and especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the days most widely kept for his worship.
