Rāmanāma Sahasra Stava
The Rāmanāma Sahasra Stava is a stava (hymn of praise) of a thousand names of Bhagavān Rāma. Nārada Muni sang it in Rāma’s court at Ayodhyā, before the whole royal assembly, with deep devotion. It is found in the ninth chapter of the Vivāha Khaṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa.
The setting
The Vivāha Khaṇḍa describes a great series of weddings. The last of them was the wedding of Yūpaketu and Madanasundarī. After it, the family returned to Ayodhyā, and Nārada Muni stayed on in Rāma’s court.
When all the celebrations were over, Nārada rose in the full royal assembly. He sang the Rāmanāma Sahasra Stava, a hymn of a thousand names that tells the glory of Bhagavān Rāma, with the highest devotion (atibhakti). When he had finished, he took Rāma’s leave and left through the sky.
How it was handed down
Rāmadāsa is the narrator who tells the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa in its frame. He says that Nārada sang the stava “as Sūta had told it”. The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa itself was told to Vishṇudāsa at Daṇḍakāraṇya in the same way.
The stava closes the Vivāha Khaṇḍa’s account of the weddings. Nārada gave the thousand names as his gift to Bhagavān Rāma at the weddings of his sons.
Other hymns in the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa
The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa holds many hymns and stotras. Two well known ones are the Śrī Rāma Rakshā Stava in the Janma Khaṇḍa and the Śaṅkara-Kṛta Rāghuvīra Stava Rāja in the Vilāsa Khaṇḍa.
Sources
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Vivāha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 9