Śiva Sahasranāma in the Anuśāsana Parva

This is the Śiva Sahasranāma of the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata: one thousand and eight (1,008) names of Mahādeva. It is found in chapter 17 of the Anuśāsana Parva. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa (Vāsudeva) tells it to Yudhishṭhira, and he had received it from the brahmarshi Upamanyu, who had it through a long line of teachers going back to Brahmā.

Each name is followed by its etymology (nirukta) and a short explanation. The explanations lean on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gītā and several Purāṇas. They return again and again to one teaching: Hari and Hara, Vishṇu and Śiva, are not different.

The Mahābhārata has another Śiva Sahasranāma, in the Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma section, chapter 284, which Vaiśampāyana tells to Janamejaya in connection with the restoration of Daksha’s yajña. That is a separate text with its own setting. The text told here is the one in the Anuśāsana Parva.

The setting

The speaker is Bhagavān Kṛshṇa (Vāsudeva), and he is speaking to Yudhishṭhira. The chapter continues the account in the chapters before it (chapters 14 to 16, the Meghavāhana-parvākhyāna). Kṛshṇa says that the brahmarshi Upamanyu once recited this nāma-saṅgraha (collection of names) to him from the beginning, with folded hands and a still mind.

Near the end of the chapter the listener is called “Mādhava”, “Śatrusūdana” and “Janārdana”. These are names of Kṛshṇa. So the end of the chapter is Upamanyu speaking to Kṛshṇa, and Kṛshṇa tells all of this to Yudhishṭhira.

The names were first spoken by Brahmā and were gathered by the ṛshis from the Veda and the Vedāṅgas. They are praised as vedamaya (made of the very substance of the Veda) and as the best of all stotras. They give svarga (heaven), auspiciousness and good to all beings.

Kṛshṇa says that even the devas could not tell the greatness of Mahādeva in hundreds of years of effort. He gives only a short recitation, shortened in word, meaning and syllable. He does it by Mahādeva’s own grace (the Telugu text says jñānasvarūpuḍaina ā mahādevuni anugrahamutō), after first getting Bhagavān Śiva’s own permission (anujñā).

How the thousand names came

Brahmā first spoke ten thousand (10,000) names of Bhagavān Śiva. From these the thousand names were “churned” out with the mind, as ghee is churned from curds. The text gives three likenesses for this essence:

as gold is the essence of a mountain,
as honey is the essence of flowers,
and as manda, the foam that rises on ghee.

The sahasranāma is catur-veda-samanvita (filled with the essence of all four Vedas). It removes all pāpa (sin) and is most auspicious.

It must be taught only to the bhakta (devoted), the śraddhāvān (full of faith) and the āstika (one who believes in the Veda). It must not be given to the faithless or the unrestrained.

The text gives a stern warning. A person who looks at Parameśvara, the cause of the universe, with a fault-finding eye goes to naraka (hell), together with his ancestors and his descendants.

How the names are arranged

The 1,008 names are given as one close list of epithets, in units of one hundred names called śataka (century). The first ten śataka make the base thousand. A small extra group of eight names brings the total to 1,008. The text marks this itself, in Telugu: ashṭādhika daśama śatakam mugiṃcindi (the tenth century with eight more is finished).

Each name is usually followed by a Sanskrit nirukta (etymology) and an explanation. These are tied to proof-texts from:

the Kena, Muṇḍaka, Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Taittirīya Upanishads,
the Bhagavad Gītā,
the Skanda, Śiva, Vishṇu and Sāmba Purāṇas,
the Harivaṃśa,
and the Sūta Saṃhitā.

So the chapter is a full commentary (bhāshya) woven into the telling, and not only a list of names.

Some examples of the etymologies

Rudra. Four derivations of the root rut are given: rauti anena rut (that by which one is made to weep); ravaṇaṃ vā rut (a crying out); rut as ajñāna (ignorance); and rut as śoka-duḥkha (grief, pain of mind and body). Rudra is then “one who drives away (drāvayati) ignorance, grief, pain and affliction”.
The name bhagavān (used of Bhagavān Śiva). Bhagāni vidyante asmin iti bhagavān: one in whom the six bhagas live. They are aiśvarya (lordship), jñāna (knowledge), yaśas (fame), śrī (glory and wealth), vairāgya (freedom from desire) and dharma.
Sthāṇu. Like the central pillar of a house, the support (āśraya) of everything. The text quotes saṃsāra-maṇḍapasyāsya mūla-stambhāya śambhave.
Vibhu. Vividha-rūpeṇa bhavati iti vibhuḥ: the one who takes the forms of Hari, Hara, Durgā, Gaṇeśa, Arka (Sūrya), Agni and Vāyu, to bless his devotees.

Hari and Hara are one

The commentary says again and again that Bhagavān Śiva and Bhagavān Vishṇu (Keśava) are not different. It gives these proofs.

The Śiva Purāṇa gives a group of eight names:

śivo maheśvaraś caiva rudro vishṇuḥ pitāmahaḥ
saṃsārabandhuḥ sarvajñaḥ paramātmeti mukhyataḥ

The eight words are śiva, maheśvara, rudra, vishṇu, pitāmaha, saṃsārabandhu, sarvajña and paramātmā. All of them name one and the same Īśvara.

The Harivaṃśa has Bhagavān Śiva speaking to Govinda at Kailāsa:

nāmāni tava govinda yāni loke mahānti ca
tāny eva mama nāmāni na atra kāryā vicāraṇā

“Govinda, whatever great names of yours there are in the world are also my names. There is no need to think about this.”

The Sūta Saṃhitā speaks against those who see Brahmā, Keśava and Vishṇu as different. It calls them pāshaṇḍôpahatā janāḥ (people struck down by a false, sectarian delusion). They fail to know the one Īśvara under many names. The text then recalls the śruti:

ekaṃ sad viprā bahudhā vadanti

The wise speak of the one Being in many ways.

Names that people usually take as Vishṇu’s or Brahmā’s, such as Mahādevo’vyayo Hariḥ and Gaṇanāthaḥ Prajāpatiḥ, are found inside Śiva’s own lists of names. Names of Śiva are found in the lists of the others. The commentary gives this as proof of the oneness.

Avatāras and deeds in the names

Several avatāras and their well-known deeds are taken into the sahasranāma as forms or acts of Bhagavān Śiva himself:

Hariḥ. Explained as āpadaṃ harati, the one who takes away calamity. The rescue of Gajendra (Gajendra-mokshaṇa) is given as an example.
Mahānakhaḥ and Mahānāgahanaḥ and names near them. They are tied to the Narasiṃha avatāra, who destroyed Hiraṇyakaśipu, and to the killing of the great elephant-asura (see Gajahā below).
Varo Varāhaḥ. The Varāha avatāra is taken in as one of Śiva’s own forms.
Vāmana-Trivikrama (the account of Bali) and Hayagrīva are also named as forms that belong to the one Īśvara.

The planets, the Vedas and the states of mind

The commentary also links the names of Bhagavān Śiva with the grahas (planets), with the Vedas seen as his limbs, with the twenty-five or twenty-six tattvas of the Sāṅkhya system, and with the three states of the Māṇḍūkya Upanishad: jāgrat (waking), svapna (dream) and sushupti (deep sleep). These are read into names about his threefold nature or his three eyes.

The answer to repetition (punarukti)

Some will say that many names in the sahasranāma mean nearly the same and so are said twice (punarukti). The text answers in the manner of Mīmāṃsā. Even where the words are the same (śabdaikya), the things meant may differ (arthabheda). Even where the meanings are the same (arthaikya), the words may differ (śabdabheda). In neither case is anything said twice.

As an example it takes the word “Indra”, which has one sense in the Vedic mantra aindrayāgārhapatyam upatishṭhate and another in ordinary speech. The sameness of a word does not mean the sameness of its meaning, nor the reverse. So no name in the sahasranāma is truly repeated.

Events that explain particular names

Many names are explained by short references to well-known events.

The destruction of Daksha’s yajña. It is the background of several names that describe the terrible side of Bhagavān Śiva.
The destruction of Tripura (Tripurāsura-saṃhāra). It is given among the deeds that explain the names of his power to destroy the worlds.
Gajahā. The Skanda Purāṇa is quoted: vārāṇasyāṃ purāṇāto gajarūpī mahāsuraḥ jaghne taṃ kuñjaraṃ bhīmam adhshyam api śaṅkaraḥ. In old Vārāṇasī, Śaṅkara killed the terrible great asura who had the form of an elephant and could not be overcome. This explains the names Gajahā and Mahānāgahanaḥ.
Bali and Vāmana-Trivikrama. They are given among the events taken into the sahasranāma’s account of the forms of Bhagavān Śiva that fill all things.
The defeat of Bāṇāsura by Kṛshṇa. The commentary says it happened only by Śiva’s own leave. This fits the teaching that Hari and Hara are not different.
Dārukāvana. Bhagavān Śiva came naked and like one out of his mind among the wives of the ṛshis of the Dāruka forest, to test them and in the end to free them. The ṛshis were angry and gave him a śāpa (a curse), but in the end Bhagavān Śiva kindly gave them tattva-jñāna (knowledge of the truth). This explains four names, given just below the list.
A merchant’s insult to a brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa was insulted by a vaṇik (merchant) and began a fast unto death (prāyopaveśa). In the Mokshadharma section, Indra took the form of a jackal (śṛgāla) to comfort him. Indra is here held to be not different from Mahādeva, and this explains the name Śṛgālarūpaḥ.
The descent of the Gaṅgā (Gaṅgā-avataraṇa). Bhagīratha’s tapas and the account of the sons of Sagara are given among the events behind the names connected with the Gaṅgā on Bhagavān Śiva’s head.
Brahmā’s fifth head. Bhagavān Śiva cut off Brahmā’s fifth head. This is the origin of his kāpālika form (the form that bears a skull). It explains Kapālavān (“he who cut off Brahmā’s head and bears that skull”) and Kāpālī (“formed from the skulls that stand for sky and earth”: kapālābhyāṃ dyu-pṛthivī-rūpābhyāṃ nirvṛttaṃ kapālam).
The false witness of Kāmadhenu. Brahmā and Bhagavān Vishṇu quarrelled over which of them had truly reached either end of the liṅga. Brahmā had not found the top. He asked Kāmadhenu to give false witness that she had seen it. Out of fear she did so. Mahādeva then gave a śāpa that her young would eat filth (amedhya) for ever, and threw Kāmadhenu down from her high place. This explains the name Surabhyuttaraṇaḥ (“he who threw Surabhi, that is Kāmadhenu, down from her high place”).
Mārkaṇḍeya and the banyan tree. In the waters of the great dissolution (pralaya), Mārkaṇḍeya saw the child Kṛshṇa, as Mahāvishṇu, sleeping on a banyan leaf (vaṭa, nyagrodha) on the one ocean. This explains the names Nyagrodha-rūpaḥ and Nyagrodhaḥ (“in the form of the vaṭa tree, as Dakshiṇāmūrti beside the banyan, seen by Mārkaṇḍeya”) and Vṛkshakarṇa-sthitiḥ (“living on the ear or leaf of the tree”). One seed gives one banyan, and that banyan gives endless seeds again. This is a picture of the working of the world as the māyā of Bhagavān Śiva himself.
Narasiṃha and Hiraṇyakaśipu. The name Mahānakhaḥ (of great claws) ties the destruction of Hiraṇyakaśipu by Narasiṃha into the sahasranāma.
Varāha. The name Varo Varāhaḥ (“the excellent Boar”) brings in the Varāha avatāra.
The line of Atri and Anasūyā. The name Atryānamaskartā (“he who bows to Atri’s wife Anasūyā”) is explained by Datta (Dattātreya) and Durvāsa being born as partial forms (aṃśas) of Śiva through Anasūyā, the wife of Atri. Durvāsa is explained as rudrāṃśaḥ, a part of Rudra. In the same passage Budha (Mercury) is also linked to the Atri gotra.
Bāshkali’s teaching by silence. An Upanishad account tells that the teacher was asked three times about the Self and stayed silent. At last he said:

brūmaḥ khalu tvaṃ tu na vijānāsi, upaśānto’yam ātmā

“We have indeed been telling you; you have only not understood. This Self is itself utter peace.” This explains the name Muni (“one who does nothing outwardly and stays in silence”).

The four names from the Dārukāvana account are:

Digvāsāḥ means “clothed in the directions”, that is, naked. The commentary also explains it as “one who covers the endless directions”, from the Upanishad words īśāvāsyam idaṃ sarvam.
Śarva means “he who troubled the munis of Dārukāvana”.
Śaṅkara means “he who, out of kindness, brought kalyāṇa (good) to the same munis he had troubled”.
Bahudhā-nindita means “much blamed”, because he took so charming a form that he troubled the wives of the ṛshis.

The phalaśruti

At the end of the chapter Kṛshṇa says he has recited only the chief (pradhāna) names, out of the names of Bhagavān Śiva that have no end. Even Brahmā and the ṛshis cannot fully know the one who is worthy of such praise. Who then could praise the Īśvara of the universe in full?

The fruit (phala) of reciting the sahasranāma is great.

Reciting it with yoga, purity and bhakti leads to śiva-sāyujya, union with Bhagavān Śiva.
It is vedatulya (equal to the Veda). It is a direct sādhana (means) for parama-brahma-prāpti, reaching the highest Brahman. It is not only a store of puṇya (merit) but itself a means of the knowledge (vidyā) that frees.
Steady recitation without distraction leads to moksha.
Through countless births, devotees who recite it rejoice and delight in it. After “thousands of crores of births” (the Telugu text says vēla-koṭla janmalalō), their pāpa is destroyed and bhakti to Śiva at last arises.
This ananya-bhakti (undivided devotion) is rare even among the devas, and much more among men. It arises only by the grace (anugraha) of Śaṅkara.
Complete surrender (prapatti) to Parameśvara alone, and to no other deva, lifts a being out of saṃsāra. Other devas lack this power. They can only use up the tapo-bala (power of tapas) of the one who worships them, and cannot free him.
Worldly gains are also promised: svarga, ārogya (health), āyushya (long life) and dhana (wealth). There is also protection from the dānavas, yakshas, rākshasas, piśācas, guhyakas and nāgas.
For Dharmarāja (Yudhishṭhira) in particular: reciting the stotra in purity, with brahmacarya and yoga, for one full year gives the fruit of an Aśvamedha yajña.

The line of teachers (paramparā)

The chapter ends with the chain by which the sahasranāma came down:

Brahmā
Indra
Mṛtyu (Yama)
the Rudras
Tāṇḍya Muni, who brought the stotra down to earth through great tapas in Brahmaloka
Śukra
Gautama
Vaivasvata Manu
Nārāyaṇa, here called a jñānī sādhya (a Sādhya who knows), in the Telugu words dharmacyutuḍu kāni Nārāyaṇa-sādhyuḍu, and not Vishṇu-Nārāyaṇa
Yama
Naciketa
Mārkaṇḍeya
Upamanyu, who says “I received it from Mārkaṇḍeya”
Kṛshṇa
and now Yudhishṭhira

Tāṇḍya’s part here, receiving the stotra in Brahmaloka through tapas and bringing it to earth, joins this chapter to the account of Tāṇḍya in chapter 16 of the Anuśāsana Parva (the Meghavāhana-parvākhyāna).

The colophon

The chapter ends: “This is the seventeenth chapter of the Mahādeva Sahasranāma Stotra, in the Dānadharma Parva of the Anuśāsana Parva of the Śrī Mahābhārata.”

Sources

Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, chapter 17 (Mahādeva Sahasranāma Stotra, in the Dānadharma Parva)
Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, chapters 14 to 16 (Meghavāhana-parvākhyāna), including the account of Tāṇḍya in chapter 16
Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma, chapter 284 (the other Śiva Sahasranāma)
Śiva Purāṇa (the group of eight names)
Harivaṃśa
Sūta Saṃhitā
Skanda Purāṇa (the verse on Gajahā)
Sāmba Purāṇa and Vishṇu Purāṇa
Bhagavad Gītā
Kena, Muṇḍaka, Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Taittirīya and Māṇḍūkya Upanishads

Śiva Sahasranāma (Anuśāsana Parva)