The Ganesha Sahasranama () is a list of the names of

Hindu deity Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. Deities in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, even agnostic, atheistic, or humanist.Julius J. Lipne ...

Ganesha Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

(). A

sahasranama ' is a Sanskrit term which means "a thousand names".Sir Monier Monier-Williams, ''sahasranAman'', A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages, Oxford Univer ...

is a Hindu hymn of praise in which a deity is referred to by 1,000 or more different names. Ganesha Sahasranamas are recited in many temples today as a living part of Ganesha devotion. There are two different major versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama, with subvariants of each version. One major version appears in chapter I.46 of the Ganesha Purana (), an important scripture of the Ganapatya (). This version provides an encyclopedic review of Ganesha's attributes and roles as they were understood by the Ganapatya. A Sanskrit commentary on a subvariant of this version of the Ganesha Sahasranama was written by Bhaskararaya. (). Bhaskararaya titles his commentary Khadyota ("Firefly"), making a play on words based on two different meanings of this Sanskrit term. In his opening remarks Bhaskararaya says that some will say that because the commentary is very brief it is inconsequential like a firefly (khadyota) but to devotees it will shine like the sun (khadyota). The source text (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

:; ) of Bhaskararaya's Khadyota commentary generally follows the text of the 1993 reprint edition Ganesha Purana (GP-1993) , but there are quite a few differences in names, and the versification differs slightly. There are enough differences so that the Bhaskararaya variant and the GP-1993 versions can be considered distinct. There is a completely different second major version in which all of the names begin with the letter 'g' (ग्).A subvariant of this alliterative version appears in the book Lord Ganesha by Sadguru Sant Keshavadas, Vishwa Dharma Publications, 1988, . The names and structure of this version bear no resemblance to the Ganesha Purana version.

References

External links

Downloadable Sanskrit version of a variant of the Ganesha Sahasranama
{{Ganesha Sahasranama Ganesha