The Shiva Tandava Stotram is the most immediately recognisable hymn in Sanskrit — a torrent of sixteen-syllable lines built from compounds so long the reciter cannot pause, with the beat of the damaru written directly into the syllables. Tradition holds it was composed by Ravana with his hands pinned beneath Mount Kailasa, singing instead of cursing. This guide covers that attribution honestly, explains the Panchachamara metre that gives the hymn its unstoppable momentum, walks through the imagery of the dance, and comes to the surprising thing the stotra finally asks for after fourteen verses of asking for nothing.
🗻 The Stotram at a Glance
Traditionally attributed to: Ravana — a traditional attribution, not
established authorship
The story: sung with his hands pinned beneath Kailasa
Reward: release, and the sword Chandrahasa
Metre: Panchachamara — 16 syllables per line, strict alternation
Length: 15, 16 or 17 verses depending on the edition
Distinctive for: onomatopoeia — the drum and the serpents are in the syllables
Recited on: Monday · Pradosha · above all Maha Shivaratri
Duration: about 5–8 minutes
📑 Table of Contents
📜 The Attribution to Ravana
Stated at the outset, because the question is always asked. The Shiva Tandava Stotram is traditionally attributed to Ravana. That attribution is ancient, is universally accepted within devotional practice, and is inseparable from how the hymn is understood and recited.
It should nonetheless be described as a traditional attribution rather than an established authorship — the tradition transmits it as Ravana's, and this page reports it exactly that way. What is not in doubt in the sources is Ravana's devotion to Shiva, which the Ramayana's Uttara Kanda treats at length.
🗻 The Story Behind It
The narrative the tradition attaches to the hymn is the Kailasa episode. Ravana, denied passage at the mountain, attempts to uproot Kailasa itself. Shiva presses down with the toe of one foot, and Ravana's hands are pinned beneath the mountain.
Trapped and in agony, he does not curse. He sings — and the tradition holds that what he sang was this stotra. Shiva, pleased, releases him and grants him the sword Chandrahasa. The cry of pain at that moment is also given as the origin of the name Ravana, "he who makes the worlds cry out."
💡 Why the story matters to the hymn
The Shiva Tandava Stotram is understood as praise composed under crushing weight, by someone who put himself there. That framing is why it is recited in difficulty, and it also explains the hymn's most distinctive quality: it does not ask for anything until very near the end. It is almost entirely description.
🎵 The Metre — Why It Sounds Like That
The stotra's overwhelming effect is metrical. It is composed in Panchachamara, a metre of sixteen syllables per line in a strict alternating light-heavy pattern, which produces a relentless galloping rhythm quite unlike ordinary stotra metres.
The opening line — jaṭāṭavī-galajjala-pravāha-pāvita-sthale — is a single compound word running the length of a half-line. The hymn is built out of these long compounds, chained so that the reciter cannot pause. The sound is doing the same work as the meaning: this is a hymn about a dance of dissolution, and it is constructed so that it cannot be stopped once begun.
Editions give the hymn as 15, 16 or 17 verses — the closing verses, including the phalashruti, are counted differently in different printings.
🌊 What the Hymn Describes
The stotra is a sustained visual and sonic description of Shiva in the act of the tandava. Its recurring images:
| Image | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| The matted hair as a forest | jatatavi — the Ganga flowing through and from it, sanctifying the ground |
| The serpent garland | The snakes at his neck, their hoods and their hiss |
| The damaru | The drum whose damad damad sound the verse imitates directly |
| The fire in the hand | The flame of dissolution held in the dancing figure's palm |
| The crescent moon | Worn on the crown, above the matted hair |
| The third eye | And the fire that consumed Kama |
| The elephant hide | Worn as a garment — the destruction of the elephant demon |
| Parvati beside him | Repeatedly invoked; the dance is not solitary |
📌 The onomatopoeia
A feature that survives no translation: the hymn imitates sounds. The drum's damad damad damad damaṅ, the serpents' hiss, the roar of the dance — these are written into the syllables. It is one of the very few Sanskrit stotras where the point can be substantially grasped by someone who does not know the language, simply by hearing it. This is also why it has travelled so far beyond traditional recitation.
💃 What the Tandava Is
The tandava is Shiva's dance, and the tradition distinguishes several forms. The best known:
- Ananda Tandava — the dance of bliss, the form depicted in the classical Nataraja bronze, performed at Chidambaram.
- Rudra / Samhara Tandava — the dance of destruction at the end of a cycle; the register the stotram is closest to.
- Lasya — the gentle counterpart, associated with Parvati, against which the tandava is defined.
The classical formulation is that the tandava is not destruction opposed to creation but the single motion in which creation, preservation, dissolution, concealment and grace all occur — the panchakritya, the five acts, held in one dancing figure.
🕯️ How It Is Recited
Customary practice
- Day: Monday, the day of Shiva; and Pradosha, the twilight of the thirteenth tithi.
- Occasion: above all Maha Shivaratri, through the night's four praharas.
- Duration: roughly 5–8 minutes — short enough for daily recitation, which is part of why it is so widely used.
- Manner: the tradition emphasises reciting it aloud and at pace. Read slowly and silently it loses most of what it is; the metre is the instrument.
- Alongside: abhisheka of the linga, bilva leaves, and Om Namah Shivaya.
📖 What the Hymn Asks For
Fourteen or so verses of pure description pass before the hymn asks for anything. When it does, the request is characteristic: not wealth, not victory, not release from the mountain — but that the mind should rest on Shiva, and that the reciter should be freed of the afflictions that come from elsewhere.
The closing phalashruti states that one who recites this hymn at dusk, having worshipped, is granted steadiness and freed from the wanderings of the mind. For a hymn composed — by the tradition's account — under a mountain, the thing asked for is remarkably interior.
💡 Why It Has Travelled So Far
- It is short and it is loud. Five to eight minutes of galloping metre, built for recitation aloud.
- The sound carries the sense. The onomatopoeia works even for listeners who do not know Sanskrit — rare among stotras.
- Its attributed author is the epic's great antagonist. A hymn of supreme devotion credited to Ravana makes a point the tradition never tires of: devotion is not the property of the righteous.
- It asks for almost nothing. Fourteen verses of description before a single request, and the request is for steadiness of mind.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Did Ravana really write the Shiva Tandava Stotram?
The hymn is traditionally attributed to Ravana, and the attribution is ancient, universally accepted in devotional practice, and inseparable from how the hymn is understood. It is best described as a traditional attribution rather than established authorship. What is not in doubt is Ravana's devotion to Shiva, which the Ramayana's Uttara Kanda treats at length.
What is the story behind the Shiva Tandava Stotram?
The Kailasa episode. Denied passage, Ravana attempted to uproot the mountain; Shiva pressed down with the toe of one foot and Ravana's hands were pinned beneath it. Trapped and in agony he did not curse but sang — and tradition holds that what he sang was this stotra. Shiva released him and granted him the sword Chandrahasa.
Why does the Shiva Tandava Stotram sound so distinctive?
Its metre. It is composed in Panchachamara — sixteen syllables per line in a strict alternating pattern — producing a galloping rhythm unlike ordinary stotra metres, and built from very long compounds chained so the reciter cannot pause. The sound does the work of the meaning: a hymn about a dance of dissolution, built so it cannot be stopped once begun.
How many verses are in the Shiva Tandava Stotram?
Editions give it as fifteen, sixteen or seventeen verses. The variation comes from how the closing verses, including the phalashruti, are counted in different printings — the body of the hymn is the same.
What does tandava mean?
The tandava is Shiva's dance. The tradition distinguishes the Ananda Tandava of bliss, depicted in the Nataraja bronze; the Rudra or Samhara Tandava of destruction, which is the register the stotram is closest to; and lasya, the gentle counterpart associated with Parvati. Classically, all five cosmic acts occur in the one dancing figure.
When should the Shiva Tandava Stotram be recited?
Monday, the day of Shiva, and on Pradosha — and above all on Maha Shivaratri, through the night's four praharas. It takes roughly 5–8 minutes. The tradition emphasises reciting it aloud and at pace: read slowly and silently it loses most of what it is, because the metre is the instrument.
What does the Shiva Tandava Stotram ask for?
Almost nothing, for most of its length — some fourteen verses of pure description pass before it makes any request. When it does, it asks not for wealth, victory or even release, but that the mind should rest on Shiva. The closing phalashruti promises steadiness and freedom from the wanderings of the mind.
🙏 Conclusion
The Shiva Tandava Stotram is the clearest demonstration in Sanskrit that sound can carry meaning without translation. Its metre gallops, its compounds refuse a pause, and the drum and the serpents are written into the syllables themselves — which is why it has reached far beyond the people who can read it. The story attached to it is doing something equally deliberate: the tradition credits its greatest antagonist with its most exhilarating hymn of praise, composed while pinned under a mountain of his own making. And after all that noise and all that description, what it finally asks for is a quiet mind.