The Bāhuṁ Chant: the eight Jayamaṅgala verses with translation and meaning

The Bāhuṁ chant, the eight Jayamaṅgala verses, in Pali with reading and translation, the story behind each of the Buddha's victories, and how to chant it

The Bāhuṁ chant, or Jayamaṅgala verses, is a Pali chant of eight verses telling of eight victories of the Buddha, each won by a good quality rather than by force: giving, patience, loving-kindness, wisdom and so on. Every verse ends with the same line, tan tejasā bhavatu te jayamaṅgalāni, 'by the power of this, may the blessings of victory be yours', and a closing verse follows. The name Bāhuṁ is the first word of verse 1, 'arm', meaning the thousand arms that Māra created. Below is the full chant, all eight verses, in Pali with its reading and a translation of each verse. This section explains where it comes from, the story behind each victory, what each verse teaches and how to chant it.

What is the Bāhuṁ chant?

Its formal name is Jayamaṅgala-gāthā: jaya, 'victory', maṅgala, 'blessing, what brings growth', and gāthā, 'verse', so 'verses of the blessing of victory'. It is not in the Tipiṭaka. It is a later Pali composition; its author is unknown and when it was written is not certain. But the events it tells are taken from the suttas, the Vinaya and the commentaries: the author chose well-known stories and set them in fine verse. Every verse has the same shape: who came to challenge the Buddha, how they came, and by which quality he won.

Bāhuṁ is often chanted after the Itipiso and followed by the Jaya Paritta, which begins Mahākāruṇiko. These three form a set of blessing chants often heard at merit-making ceremonies. When monks chant for others they say te, 'to you'; when chanting for themselves, many people change it to me, 'to me'.

The eight victories in the Bāhuṁ chant

Each verse pairs one event with one quality. Knowing the story behind it lets you chant with understanding rather than just reciting sounds.

1. Victory over Māra, by giving and the other perfections. On the night before the awakening under the Bodhi tree, Māra made himself a thousand arms, each with a weapon, and came with his army on the elephant Girimekhala. The Bodhisatta did not fight with weapons; he relied on the goodness he had built up, beginning with giving.
2. Victory over the yakkha Āḷavaka, by patience. In the Āḷavaka Sutta the yakkha orders the Buddha out and in again several times, and he complies patiently; when he declines the fourth time, the yakkha asks his questions, the Buddha answers them, and Āḷavaka understands and declares that he will travel from village to village paying homage to the Buddha and the Dhamma.
3. Victory over the elephant Nāḷāgiri, by loving-kindness. The story in the Vinaya and the commentaries tells how Devadatta had this fierce elephant, maddened, let loose on the Buddha's path; the Buddha suffused it with loving-kindness until it grew calm and stopped.
4. Victory over Aṅgulimāla, by psychic power. In the Aṅgulimāla Sutta (MN 86) the bandit runs after the Buddha with all his strength but cannot catch him, though the Buddha walks at a normal pace. When he shouts 'Stop!', the Buddha says, 'I have stopped; it is you who should stop.'
5. Victory over Ciñcā, by calm. The commentaries tell how she tied a piece of wood to her belly to look pregnant and accused the Buddha in front of the assembly. He did not answer in anger, and in the end the truth came out.
6. Victory over Saccaka, by wisdom. Saccaka was a debater sure that no one could beat him in argument. In the Shorter Discourse with Saccaka (MN 35), when he talks with the Buddha he cannot answer the Buddha's questions, and in the end admits he was rash to think he could debate him.
7. Victory over the nāga Nandopananda, by guiding the use of psychic power. The commentaries tell how this powerful nāga of wrong views was tamed by Moggallāna's psychic power, with the Buddha's permission, until he took refuge in the Triple Gem.
8. Victory over Baka the Brahmā, by knowledge. In the Invitation of a Brahmā (MN 49), Baka holds the wrong view that his own realm is permanent and that there is no escape beyond it. The Buddha shows, through greater knowledge, that the view is wrong.

The Buddha's answer to Aṅgulimāla about stopping is the heart of the fourth victory. He says in verse:

Ṭhito ahaṁ aṅgulimāla sabbadā,
Sabbesu bhūtesu nidhāya daṇḍaṁ;
Tuvañca pāṇesu asaññatosi,
Tasmā ṭhitohaṁ tuvamaṭṭhitosīti.

Aṅgulimāla, I have stopped for good: I have laid down the rod toward all beings. But you are still unrestrained toward living creatures. That is why I have stopped and you have not.

MN 86

What the closing verse says

The closing verse says that a wise person who recites and recalls these eight verses every day without laziness would leave many kinds of trouble behind and reach liberation, which is happiness. Notice that it does not speak of recitation alone: it uses sarate, 'recalls', and calls the reciter sapañño, 'wise', one who understands the qualities in each verse and puts them to use.

What does the Bāhuṁ chant help with?

The answer is in the chant itself. Each verse tells how the Buddha faced something ordinary people also meet in life, if on a much smaller scale, and which quality he won with. Chanted with its meaning in mind, it becomes a review of eight ways of responding:

• Pressure and temptation (Māra): met with goodness built up over time, and steadiness.
• Aggression and harassment (Āḷavaka): met with patience.
• Rage rushing at you (Nāḷāgiri): met with loving-kindness.
• Violence (Aṅgulimāla): met by having stopped harming, which opened a way for the other to change.
• Slander (Ciñcā): met with calm, not with angry retaliation.
• Arrogance and argument (Saccaka): met with wisdom.
• Power used wrongly (Nandopananda): met with skilful means.
• Firmly held wrong views (Baka): met with knowledge.

This page makes no promises of luck, or of results from a number of rounds. What the Bāhuṁ chant can really do is train the mind to call up these qualities at once when the same kind of situation arises.

A short form of Bāhuṁ, and chanting it 9 times

One round of Bāhuṁ means all eight verses and the closing verse, which takes a few minutes. Many people chant it nine times a day, or once every day, as a custom. The number of rounds is a custom handed down; the text does not set one. What the closing verse asks for is reciting and recalling it every day (dinadine, 'day after day'): regularity, not a count.

No short form is part of the text. Each verse is complete in itself and ends with the same line, so if you have little time it is better to chant fewer verses with attention than to rush through all of them without knowing what you are saying. When you have time, chant them all, because the eight were written to be read together as a set.

Bāhuṁ, the Jinapañjara and spreading loving-kindness

Many people chant Bāhuṁ as part of a set of chants at home. A common order is the homage to the Buddha, the three refuges, Itipiso, Bāhuṁ, the Jinapañjara and spreading loving-kindness. The order makes sense: Itipiso recalls the qualities of the Triple Gem, Bāhuṁ tells how those qualities won through, the Jinapañjara places them all around you, and spreading loving-kindness sends goodwill out to others. Some also chant the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.

How to chant it

1. Say Namo tassa three times, then begin with verse 1.
2. Before chanting it for the first time, read the translation of every verse once so you know what each one tells.
3. If you chant for yourself, change te ('to you') to me ('to me') in the last line of every verse; if you chant for someone else, keep te.
4. As you chant each verse, briefly bring its quality to mind: verse 3 is loving-kindness, verse 6 is wisdom.
5. End with the closing verse, and sit still for a moment before the next chant.

The chant

Machine translation from: Jayamaṅgala verses: a traditional later composition, not part of the Tipiṭaka, author unknown · With Āḷavaka (Snp 1.10) · With Aṅgulimāla (MN 86) · The Shorter Discourse with Saccaka (MN 35) · On the Invitation of Brahmā (MN 49) · The stories of Nāḷāgiri, Ciñcā and Nandopananda in the Vinaya and the commentaries