Stotra literature over time.

 Stotra literature over time.

By

P.R.Ramachander

Stotra comes from the word Sthuthi and Sthuthi means praise.Some stotras are also called as Sthavas. Stotra could be broadly translated as “Praise of God”.

1.Stotras of the Vedic period

The foremost among the Vedic Stotras is Rudram and chamakam addressed to Lord Shiva, Narayana as well as Purusha Suktham addressed to Lord Vishnu and Sri Suktham, Durga Suktham, Lakshmi Suktham etc addressed to the Goddess. There are many other great Sukthams like Bhagya suktham , Ikamathya Suktham , Bhoo Suktham, Medha Suktham etc. The Ganesa Atharva Sira Upanishad , which is from Atharva Veda is again a prayer addressed to Lord Ganesa. Many of these are not praise of God as such but description of several aspect of the God including its philosophy. These Sukthas were used mostly for performing Yagas and even today , though in some places they are chanted mostly they are used in fire sacrifices.

2.Stotras of the Puranic period.

It was the advent of Puranas that we started praying of worship of Individual Gods. Some of the greatest Hindu Stotras originated at this time, The most famous are the Adithya Hrudayam which is a part of Valmiki Ramayanam , Vishnu Sahasranamam which is a part of Maha Bharatham, Lalitha Sahasranamam and Lalitha Trishathi which are both part of the Markandeys puranam , The Devi Mahatmyam which is again a part of Markandeya puranam, the Gopika Gita , a part of Maha Bhagawatham and very many other Sahasranamams and stotras which are part of several Puranas. The prayers called Kavachams (Armours to protect ourselves) again originated during this period.Till this period Stotras were written only in Sanskrit.

3.Post Puranic Stotras

Possibly after all the Puranas were written, a vast outpouring of composition of prayers in almost all the spoken languages by very many poets took place . Many Prayers which originate in the earliest period are not available. The stotra as a vehicle of prayers was greatly popularized by Adhi Sankara and his disciples. We find Sankara ‘s prayers addressed to all most all gods. Apart from prayers eulogizing Gods , he also wrote several very philosophical prayers. Soundarya Lahiri and Shivananda Lahari are possibly the greatest stotras written by him. He also wrote several prayers using the Bhujanga meter. His disciples continued this trend. Almost in the same period , the Nayanmars of Tamil Nadu who were Saivite saints contributed largely to the Saivite Stotra literature which were all in tamil . There was also a great upsurge of Tamil prayers written by various great saints praising Lord Subramanya /Muruga.

Saint Ramanuja did not write many stotras b ut the Gadhya thrayam which are prose prayers are really great prayers. His disciple Vedant Desika has written very large number of very excellent prayers in Sanskrit as well as Tamil . There was also an outpouring outpouring of stotras mainly in tamil were written by the Azhvars who were all Vaishnavite saints. Saint Madhwa and his followers and the Hari Dasas of Karnataka also wrote many prayers

The Thulasi Das, Kabir Das, Sur Das , and many such great ones contributed to the Hindi prayers. Poet Jayadeva wrote his Gita Govindam in Sanskrit and a very large number of prayers were written by the great Krishna and Durga devotees of Bengal. There was also a great Bhakthi movement in Maharashtra and the stotras of this genre are called Abhangs.

The Stotra literature is not growing as it should in the modern times except for rare compositions .