Hindu Symbols and Their Meanings for Children: A Magical Adventure of Ancient Knowledge

A temple visit with a six-year-old usually comes with a string of questions. Why is there a bull outside? Why does everyone ring the bell? Why are we walking round and round? This guide to Hindu symbols and their meanings for kids covers the ones they ask about most, grouped by where they’re likely to spot them: at home, inside a temple, in pictures of the gods and out in nature. The last section is about pradakshina, the clockwise walk around a shrine, because that’s the one kids actually take part in.

One thing to know before starting: most Hindu symbols carry more than one meaning. Different regions, families and texts explain them differently. Where that’s the case, this guide says so rather than pretending there’s a single answer.

At home and at the front door

Om (ॐ)

Om is both a symbol and a sound. It’s chanted at the start of prayers and mantras, and many families write it at the top of the first page of a new notebook. The Mandukya Upanishad splits it into three sounds, A, U and M, and links them to waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The silence after the sound stands for something beyond all three. Another common explanation links the three sounds to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

For kids, the easiest way in is to say it together, slowly, and notice how the sound starts at the back of the throat and ends with closed lips.

Swastika (卐)

The name comes from the Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. It’s drawn in kumkum or turmeric at doorways, in account books at Diwali and on new vehicles, as a wish for good fortune. The shape is ancient. It appears on seals from the Indus Valley civilisation.

Families living outside India may need to explain it. In the twentieth century, the Nazi party in Germany used a tilted version of the shape, so many people in Europe and North America know it only from that history. A kid who draws one at school abroad may get a reaction they don’t understand. It helps to tell them early that the Hindu symbol is thousands of years older and means something completely different, and that it’s fine to explain this to a teacher.

Kalash

A kalash is a pot of water, usually brass or copper, with mango leaves around the rim and a coconut on top. It’s set up at the start of a puja, a housewarming or a wedding. The full pot stands for abundance, and in many households it’s treated as a seat for the deity during the ceremony. Ask your kid what a full pot of water might mean. Most will say something about having enough, which is close to the traditional idea.

Tilak and bindi

The mark on the forehead goes between the eyebrows, a point linked with the ajna chakra in yoga traditions. Its shape often tells you something. Three horizontal lines of ash are usually worn by followers of Shiva, while a U or V shape is common among followers of Vishnu. A bindi is the round dot, traditionally worn by women. Kids enjoy spotting the different shapes at a temple and guessing which deity each person worships.

Inside a temple

The bell (ghanta)

Most temples have a bell at the entrance or just before the inner shrine, and devotees ring it as they arrive. The usual explanation is that the sound clears the mind of other thoughts and announces your arrival to the deity. With small kids, the bell is often the highlight of the visit. Let them ring it once, gently, then stand still for a few seconds and listen to the sound fade.

Nandi

In a Shiva temple, a stone bull sits facing the shrine. This is Nandi, Shiva’s vahana (vehicle) and gatekeeper. He always faces the deity, which is why he’s often described as the ideal devotee: patient, still and focused on one thing. In many temples people whisper a wish into Nandi’s ear, believing he’ll pass it on to Shiva. Kids love this custom, and it’s an easy way to start a conversation about patience.

Shankha (conch)

The conch is blown at the start of an aarti or a ceremony, and it’s one of the objects Vishnu holds. In the Mahabharata, each great warrior has a named conch. Krishna’s is Panchajanya, and he blows it at the start of the battle in the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita (1.15). If you have a conch at home, let your kid try it. Most can’t get a sound at first, and the steady breath it takes is a small lesson of its own.

In pictures of the gods

Lotus (padma)

Lakshmi and Saraswati are both shown seated on lotuses, and Vishnu holds one in his hand. The lotus grows out of mud, but its leaves and petals stay clean because water rolls straight off their waxy surface. That’s why it stands for staying good in difficult surroundings.

You can show the idea at home. Drip water on a lotus leaf, or on a cabbage or nasturtium leaf if there’s no lotus nearby, and watch the drops bead up and roll away.

Trishul (trident)

Shiva’s three-pronged trident has several traditional readings. One links the prongs to creation, preservation and destruction. Another links them to the three gunas, the qualities Hindu philosophy says everything is made of: sattva (calm and clarity), rajas (activity and restlessness) and tamas (heaviness and inertia). Older kids can try sorting their own day into those three: the calm moments, the busy ones and the sluggish ones.

Chakra (wheel)

Vishnu’s spinning discus is the Sudarshana Chakra, usually shown balanced on one finger. A wheel turns without stopping, so it’s linked with time and with dharma keeping the world in order.

Kids often ask whether the wheel on the Indian flag is the same one. It isn’t. The Ashoka Chakra comes from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, where it stands for the Buddhist wheel of dharma. Both are wheels about right conduct, but they come from different traditions.

Out in nature

Peepal tree

The peepal, or ashvattha, is one of the most respected trees in India. In the Bhagavad Gita (10.26), Krishna says that among trees he is the ashvattha. People tie threads around its trunk when making a wish and walk around it, which is itself a form of pradakshina. The Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment under a peepal, which is why it’s also called the Bodhi tree.

Verses like 10.26, where Krishna describes himself through things a kid can actually see, are a gentle way into the Gita. If your kid enjoys finding the Gita in everyday things, Bambinos’ Bhagavad Gita classes for kids work through verses like this one with stories and discussion.

Tulsi

Many Hindu homes keep a tulsi (holy basil) plant in the courtyard or on a balcony, often in a raised planter. It’s linked with Vishnu and Krishna, and many families water it and light a lamp beside it each evening. Looking after a tulsi is a good first responsibility for a kid. It needs water, sun and a little attention, and it shows very quickly when it’s been forgotten.

Pradakshina: why we walk clockwise around temples

Visit almost any Hindu temple and you’ll see people walking slowly around the inner shrine, always in the same direction. This is pradakshina, also called parikrama. Besides the shrine, people circle a sacred fire, a tulsi plant or a peepal tree. At a Hindu wedding, the pheras the couple take around the fire are a pradakshina too.

What the word means

Dakshina means “right” (it can also mean “south”). In pradakshina you walk so that the deity stays on your right-hand side all the way round, and that means moving clockwise.

Why clockwise?

There isn’t one official answer, and it’s worth telling kids that. These are the explanations you’ll hear most often.

• The right side is the respectful side. In Indian tradition, the right hand and the right side are used for giving, receiving and offering. Keeping the deity on your right is a way of showing respect.
• It follows the sun. Seen from India, the sun rises in the east, crosses the southern sky and sets in the west. Walking clockwise around a centre traces that same path, so pradakshina mirrors the sun’s daily movement.
• It puts the deity at the centre. When you circle something, it becomes the middle of your path. The walk is a physical way of saying the deity is at the centre of your life, the way the sun sits at the centre of the planets’ orbits.

You may also read that walking clockwise lines you up with a temple’s “magnetic energy”. There’s no scientific evidence for that, and the traditional reasons don’t need it.

The story kids remember

Ganesha and his brother Kartikeya were once challenged to race around the world. Kartikeya set off at once on his peacock. Ganesha walked three times around his parents, Shiva and Parvati, and said they were his whole world, so he had already gone around it. It’s the best-known pradakshina in Hindu stories, and it’s one of the Lord Ganesha stories for kids that works well read aloud the night before a temple visit.

How many rounds?

Customs vary from temple to temple. Three rounds is common, and people may do one, three, five or more depending on the place and the occasion. In many Shiva temples, devotees don’t make a full circle. They walk around the shrine until they reach the channel that carries away the water poured over the lingam, then turn back, because that channel isn’t meant to be crossed. Some people also turn around on the spot at the end of a puja, a small pradakshina around themselves.

The longest pradakshinas

Some are pilgrimages in their own right. At Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, devotees walk around Arunachala hill on a route of about 14 km, called Girivalam, especially on full-moon nights. The parikrama around Govardhan hill near Mathura is about 21 km.

Other faiths circle sacred places too

Buddhists walk clockwise around stupas, and Jains circle their shrines in the same direction. Muslims performing the pilgrimage at Mecca walk around the Kaaba anticlockwise. Kids are usually interested to hear that walking around something sacred is shared by many faiths, even when the direction differs.

Making the walk meaningful for a kid

Before the visit, tell them what will happen and why. During the walk, ask them to go slowly and quietly, keep the shrine on their right and count the rounds in a whisper. Afterwards, ask what they noticed: the smell of incense, the bell, the way other people walked. A three- or four-year-old won’t take in the meaning yet, and that’s fine. The habit of moving calmly in a sacred place comes first, and the reasons can follow as they grow.

Symbols like these are easiest to understand when a kid can ask questions and hear the stories behind them. If you’d like a teacher to guide those conversations, Bambinos offers a free trial class.