Vitthal Stotram (Pandurangashtakam)

By the BhaktiRas Editorial Team · Updated 16 July 2026

Every year, lakhs of pilgrims walk the wari to Pandharpur to stand before Vitthal, the deity who waits, arms on hips, on a simple brick. Pandurangashtakam is the Sanskrit hymn Adi Shankaracharya wrote for that same image, eight verses that move from the god’s cosmic form down to the ordinary detail of his feet resting on a brick, closing with a ninth verse promising that whoever recites this daily with a focused mind eventually crosses the sea of worldly life.

Pandurangashtakam Lyrics (Sanskrit and Transliteration)

What Pandurangashtakam Is Really Saying

The whole hymn works on one contrast: cosmic scale set right next to an ordinary brick. Verse after verse describes a figure whose crown lights up every direction, whose navel holds Brahma’s lotus, whose form the gods themselves worship with priceless gems, and then quietly reminds you that this same figure is standing on a piece of baked clay because a boy named Pundalik once asked him to wait a moment while he finished caring for his parents.

Every verse ends on the same line, Parabrahma-lingam bhaje Pandurangam, I worship Panduranga who is the visible sign of the formless Supreme. For Shankara, best known for teaching that Brahman is beyond name and form, this refrain is doing real philosophical work: it says the villager’s brick-top god at Pandharpur and the attributeless Absolute of the Upanishads are not two different things to choose between.

The closing phalashruti verse is simple and practical rather than mystical. It promises that steady, focused daily recitation, not occasional or distracted repetition, is what carries a person across the difficulties of worldly life toward a lasting sense of home.

When and How Pandurangashtakam Is Recited

1. – Read one verse at a time; each is a complete, self-contained picture, so there is no need to rush to the next.
2. – Say the refrain, Parabrahma-lingam bhaje Pandurangam, slowly, since it is the line that repeats and anchors every verse.
3. – Picture the specific detail each verse gives (the crown, the earrings, the brick underfoot) rather than treating the hymn as generic praise.
4. – If reciting the full ashtakam feels long at first, start with verses 1, 2 and 8, then add the rest over time.
5. – Close with the ninth, phalashruti verse, which is what turns the recitation from description into a completed prayer.
6. – Recite with attention rather than speed; the hymn itself says a focused mind is what makes the practice work.

Why Devotees Recite Pandurangashtakam

The hymn does not promise anything unusual; its own closing verse states its purpose plainly, so the points below stay close to that.

• : Gives devotees a compact, memorable set of images of Vitthal's form to hold in mind during worship
• : Connects Sanskrit philosophical vocabulary (Parabrahman) directly to the folk-beloved deity of Pandharpur
• : Works well as a short daily recitation for households that want something more compact than a full aarti
• : Frequently sung or read during the Ashadhi and Kartiki wari season alongside Marathi abhangs
• : Its phalashruti verse frames steady practice, not one-time recitation, as what matters
• : Offers a Sanskrit companion piece for devotees already familiar with Tukaram's Marathi Vitthal abhangs on this site

Origin: Adi Shankara and the God on the Brick

Pandurangashtakam is traditionally credited to Adi Shankaracharya, the eighth century Advaita philosopher better known for commentaries on the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. He is also credited with a body of shorter bhakti stotras, hymns to Devi, Shiva, Vishnu and other forms, of which this ashtakam is one; as with several works in that wider stotra corpus, some scholars note that authorship attributions to Shankara can be uncertain for individual pieces, though this text has been transmitted under his name for centuries and is treated as part of his stotra literature.

The deity it addresses, Vitthal or Panduranga, is worshipped at the Vithoba temple in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, on the bank of the Bhima river (called Chandrabhaga at that stretch). Local tradition holds that Vitthal appeared before his young devotee Pundalik, who was tending to his parents and, without pausing his service to them, tossed the god a brick to stand on rather than leave him waiting. Vitthal is said to have remained there ever since, hands on hips, feet on the brick, a posture every verse of this ashtakam circles back to.

The hymn sits at a meeting point of two traditions: Shankara’s Advaita philosophy, which speaks of a Brahman beyond all form, and the Maharashtrian Varkari bhakti movement built around Vitthal’s very particular, very local form. The refrain ‘Parabrahma-lingam bhaje Pandurangam’ is Shankara’s way of holding both at once.

Frequently Asked Questions

॥ जय जय विठ्ठल ॥