Om Jai Sita Mata – Aarti of Goddess Sita

By the BhaktiRas Editorial Team · Updated 14 July 2026

Sita, the foundling princess raised by King Janaka of Mithila, is remembered in this aarti as Janak Dulari — Janaka’s cherished daughter and Rama’s beloved. The hymn is short by design: four movements that a household can complete in the time a diya burns steady. Its most familiar refrain, “Aarti Shri Janak Dulari Ki,” is the line most temples and homes actually sing when they worship Sita, and the verses that follow trace her life from Mithila’s palace to the forest years, dwelling less on grief than on the steadiness she kept through both. People turn to it on Ram Navami and Vivah Panchami, and on Sita Navami, her own birth day, when the lamp is meant for her alone rather than shared with Rama.

Om Jai Sita Mata Lyrics

Meaning & Significance

The aarti reads Sita’s story as a single arc of steadiness. It opens by naming her through the two men who defined her public identity — Janaka who raised her, Rama who married her — but everything after that is about what she herself carried. The first verse lifts her to the scale of the world, calling her its mother and sustainer, then immediately grounds that scale in her kindness to the small and struggling. That pairing is deliberate: greatness measured by mercy rather than might.

The middle verse is where the hymn does its real work. Instead of retelling the abduction and the war, it keeps its eye on Sita’s own decisions — following Rama into exile so she could serve his duty, and accepting separation when his path required it. The word the verse leans on is tyag, renunciation, framed as something she chose. It is a reading of Sita as an agent of her own dharma, not merely its victim.

The closing verse turns outward to the devotee. Her fame fills every realm, her name purifies the mind, her remembrance dissolves suffering, and to those who seek shelter she gives freedom from fear. That final promise — sharanagat jan bhay hari — is why the lamp is waved: not to praise a distant queen, but to ask a present mother for refuge.

How Do You Perform the Aarti?

1. Choose the occasion — Sing it during Sita worship — most commonly on Ram Navami, Vivah Panchami (her wedding to Rama), and Sita Navami, her birth anniversary. It also fits any Ramayana path or Siya-Ram bhajan session at home.
2. Set the lamp — Light a diya with ghee or oil on a plate, ideally with a few flowers, kumkum, and a little water for the concluding offering. A picture or murti of Sita, or of Sita with Rama, is placed before you.
3. Sing the refrain first — Begin with 'Aarti Shri Janak Dulari Ki, Sita Ji Raghuvar Pyari Ki' and return to it after every verse — this is the line the whole household joins in on.
4. Wave the lamp in gentle circles — Move the lit plate clockwise before the image, in slow steady circles, keeping time with the verses rather than rushing them.
5. Close and share the flame — After the last verse, offer the flame's warmth by passing your palms over it and touching them to your eyes, then distribute prasad. Sprinkle the offered water as a final gesture.

What Are the Benefits of Singing This Aarti?

Devotees sing this aarti as part of Sita worship for reasons that are as much about attitude as about outcome. Commonly named among them:

• Cultivates patience and inner steadiness: Sita's forest years are the emotional centre of the hymn; singing it is treated as a way to draw on that calm under one's own pressures.
• Honours the marital bond: On Vivah Panchami especially, couples and families sing it to bless a marriage with mutual devotion, which is why it features at wedding-season and anniversary observances.
• Invokes maternal compassion: The aarti addresses Sita as jagat janani, mother of the world, and devotees turn to her for the protective, forgiving care a mother gives.
• Completes Rama worship: Rama is rarely honoured without Sita; adding this aarti to a Ramayana path or Ram bhajan rounds out the worship of the divine pair.
• Offers a sense of refuge: The closing line promises freedom from fear to those who take shelter with her — the reassurance many devotees are seeking when they light the lamp.

Who Wrote This Aarti?

This aarti is traditional and anonymous, like most Hindi household aartis — no single composer is recorded, and it has passed down through temple singing and family worship rather than a fixed printed edition. Its best-known form, ‘Aarti Shri Janak Dulari Ki,’ circulates through aarti sangrahas, Ramayana gatherings, and recordings across North India.

Because it is folk-transmitted, small wording differences appear between regions and songbooks — a swapped adjective here, an extra half-line there. The version given here follows the widely-sung text confirmed across multiple devotional sources. Sita herself is one of the two central figures of the Ramayana; the hymn assumes that story as its backdrop rather than narrating it.

Frequently Asked Questions

॥ बोलो सियावर रामचंद्र की जय ॥ ॥ जय सीता माता ॥