Sahasranama

Sahasranāma (Devanagari सहस्रनाम) is a Sanskrit term which means "a thousand names". It is also a genre of stotra literature, usually found as a title of the text named after a deity, such as Vishnu Sahasranāma, wherein the deity is remembered by 1,000 names, attributes or epithets.

As stotras, Sahasra-namas are songs of praise, a type of devotional literature. The word is a compound of sahasra "thousand" and nāman "name". A Sahasranāma often includes the names of other deities, suggesting henotheistic equivalence. Thus Ganesha Sahasranama list of one thousand names includes Brahma, Vishnu, Shakti, Shiva, Rudra, SadaShiva and others. It also includes epithets such as Jiva (life force), Satya (truth), Param (highest), Jnana (knowledge) and others. The Vishnu Sahasranamam includes in its list, work and jnana-yajna (offering of knowledge) as two attributes of Vishnu.Lalita Sahasranama, similarly, includes the energies of a goddess that manifest in an individual as desire, wisdom and action.

A sahasranama provides a terse list of attributes, virtues and legends symbolized by a deity. There are also many shorter stotras, called ashtottara-shata-nāma, which have only 108 names.

The Sahasranama such as the Vishnu Sahasra Nama, are not found in early Samhita manuscripts, rather found in medieval and later versions of various Samhitas. One of the significant works on Sahasranama is from the sub-school of Ramanuja and the Vishnu Sahasra-namam Bhasya (commentary) by 12th-century Parasara Bhattar.

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