Maangalyam Thanthunaanena – Learn Sanskrit through Slokas

Welcome back to the series of learning Sanskrit through Slokas! Today’s verse is a popular shloka (maangalyam thanthunaanena ) chanted during weddings. This sloka is part of the Mangalasutra-bandhana (tying of the sacred thread during marriage). It finds references among ancient books such as Shaunaka smriti and Laghu Aashvalaayana smriti.

Here is the shloka:

maangalyam thanthunaanena mama jeevana hethunaa |
kante baddhnaami subhage tvam jeeva sharada: shatham ||

Let’s discuss the word-by-word meaning of the above sloka.

maangalyam thanthunaanena

• maangalyam – Auspicious or holy. Arises out of ‘mangalam‘
• anena – ‘anena‘ means ‘through this’
• thanthunaa – ‘thanthu’ is a cotton string or thread. ‘thanthunaa‘ is ‘by this thread’

To summarize, it means ‘by means of this holy thread‘

mama jeevana hetunaa

• mama – mama is ‘my’. thava is ‘your’ (‘What is your name?’ is ‘thava naama kim?‘)
• jeevana – jeevan is life. Here it means ‘long life’
• hethunaa – ‘hethu’ is purpose

The full phrase will mean ‘for the purpose of my long life’

kante baddhnaami subhage

• kante – ‘kanta:’ is neck in Sanskrit. Thus ‘Neelakanta:’ is Lord Shiva (‘the one who has a blue neck’ – blue on account of drinking the halaahala poison during the churning of Milky ocean)
• baddhnaami – badhna is ‘to tie or fasten’. badhnaami is ‘I am tying’
• subhage – subhagha is dear or charming. Subhage is to call someone charming. In this context, the wife who is receiving the sacred thread

Thus the phrase means, ‘My dearest, I am tying this around your neck‘

tvam jeeva sharada: shatham

• tvam – tvam is ‘you’. Aham is ‘I’. Sa:/Saa/Tat is ‘He/She/It’.
• jeeva – jeeva is to live (verb)
• sharada: shatham –  ‘shatham’ as you know is hundred (Sahasra is thousand and koti is crore). Sharad is autumn season (other seasons are Greeshma – Summer, Hemantha – Winter, Vasantha – Spring, Varsha – Monsoon). Since a season comes in a year once, a hundred autumn seasons would mean a hundred years.

The complete meaning of this phrase would be ‘ may you live for a hundred years!‘

The entire meaning of this beautiful shloka would be, ‘Oh my dearest! I am tying this holy thread around your neck for the purpose of my long life. I wish you also live for a hundred years!’.

The implied meaning here is that through this marriage, let this sacred thread (mangalasutra) bind us through this marriage and let us enjoy each others’ company for several years to come. Thus the sacred thread is worn as a sign of affection, well-being and togetherness.

Read the meaning of other slokas here.