Stotra or Hindu prayers
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”. Stotras can be
broadly classified according the time period as those originating during period of Vedas, period of
the Puranas and post Purana stotras or according to the style in which
they are written.
A.Stotra literature
over time.
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.
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.
Post Puranic Stotras
Possibly after all the Puranas were written, a vast outpouring of
composition of prayers 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 . 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. The 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 well in the modern times except for
rare compositions.
B.Stotra literature
by type.
I have already mentioned that all the Sukthams belong to the Vedic period.
There are very many type of Stotras
written after the Vedic period.
1.Sahasranamams
These
are the
listing of thousand names of
each God. If you go through them critically
you may not find that all
these thousand names are different and
we find that several names are repeated. The most famous of the
Sahasranamams are the Vishnu
sahasranamam and the Lalitha
Sahasranamam. Shiva Sahasranamam and Lakshmi Sahasranams are also relatively popular.Saharanamams are
available for most of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu and all other Gods and Goddesses. Trisathi giving 300 names,
ashtotharams giving 108 names, Satha Nama stotrams giving one hundred names , Shodasa
nama stotram giving sixteen names and Dwadasa nama storams(12 names) also belong to this category of stotras.
2.Ashtakams
These are
possibly the most popular form of Hindu stotras. These normally contain eight verses praising the God or Goddess. Most of them
are very simple and easy to understand.
There is a phala Sruthi attached to every ashtakam giving the possible effect of chanting
that particular prayer.
3.Kavachams
These are
another very popular form of prayers
addressed to Gods as well as planets . Essentially they request God to
protect different parts of our body as well as mind. It also requests God to
protect us in different circumstances. Narayana Kavacham is one of the most
famous in this category.
4.Dasakam
These are
similar to ashtakam but with ten Stanzas.
5.Panchakam
These are
prayers with five stanzas.
5.Shatkam
These are
again similar to ashtakam but with six stanzas
6.Spathakam
These are
prayers with seven stanzas.
7.Pancha Dasi
These are
longer prayers with fifty stanzas
8.Pancha sathi
These are
still longer poems with five hundred
stanzas.
9.Sthava Raja
These are supposed
to be the king of prayers addressed to a particular
God. Though they are not available for all Gods, many of them are available.
10.Bhujanga Stotram
These as well as Bhujanga prayatha stotrams are supposed to move like a snake. Adhi Sankara
is credited with composing many such Bhujangams. His “Subramanya Bhujangam” is very famous
11.Dandakam
These are
stotras where there is no restriction on the length of a line of a stanza. Some
of the Dandakams are very long prayers
with just one line. Shyamala Dandakam of poet Kalidasa is the greatest in this category.
12.Karavalamba Stotram
These prayers
are addressed to the God requesting him
to extend his hand in support to us. The Lakshmi Narasimha Karavalamba
stotram of Adhi Sankara is possibly the
most famous.
13.Suprabathams
These are
prayers addressed to the lord to wake him up. The oldest among this type of
stotras are the thirupalliyezhuchi in
Tamil and the most famous is the Venkateswara Suprabatham.
14. Lahari
Lahari means
waves. In this form of prayer the
stanzas follow each other like waves. Soundarya Lahari of Adhi Sankara is possibly the most famous.
15.Pasuram
These are
tamil prayers written by the great Vaishnavite
saints of Tamil Nadu called the
Azhvars.
16.THiruvachakam
These are
again Tamil prayers written by Nayanmars , the Tamil saints eulogizing
Lord Shiva.
17. Aarthi
These are
Hindi prayers praising a particular
God. These are available addressed to
almost all Gods.
18.Chalisa
These are again
Hindi prayers but have forty
stanzas each. The most famous is Hanuman
Chalisa composed by saint Thulasidas.
19. Gadhyams
Gadhyam
means prose . Some of the Vaishnavite saints
wrote prayers in prose and the
most famous is the Gadhya Thrayam written by Saint Ramanuja
20.,Abhangs
These are
prayers written in Marathi by those
great devotees of Pandharpur,
20. Mangalams
Mangalam
means auspiciousness and thse are prayers which are sung at the end of chanting
of prayer sessions as the last prayer.
