Sri Lalita Sahasranama

by Tapasyananda

Sri Lalita Sahasranama is an excellent, appreciative, but also critical, study of the Sahasranama as a piece of Stotra literature and as an exposition of the philosophy of the Mother cult. It is both a historical and a doctrinal study of this worship of the Supreme Being as the Mother, which is current all over India in different forms. The Introduction to this edition of Lalitasahasranama is taken from the now out-of-print translation of it by Prof. D. S. Sarma. Swami Tapasyananda, the translator of this book has transliterated the original text in English accopanied by a lucid English translation which will make the chanting possible for those who have no access to Sanskrit.

Genres: Hinduism

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Swami Tapasyananda (1904-1991) was a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Mission. He was a disciple of Swami Shivananda, one of the eminent disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. The Swami was a vice-president of the Ramakrishna Order from 1985-1991. He has to his credit many books in English, including the translations of many scriptures. He was the president of Ramakrishna Math, Chennai from 1971-1991. He was a prolific writer. He translated many Hindu classics into English from original Sanskrit.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma with an introduction and translation by Swami Tapasyananda. 1988.

The copy I have is the Third Edition, Third Printing, January 2024. There wasn't an entry for this on Goodreads.

Sahasranāma is a genre of stotra (hymn, praise) literature that is found in several forms of Indian sacred dharma traditions. The word itself means "thousand names." This particular text is the Lalitā Sahasranāma, or the Thousand Names of Lalitā, a Devī (goddess) who is also commonly known by the name Tripura Sundari (the Beautiful One of the Three Cities).

The source for the Lalitā Sahasranāma is the Brahmanda Purana, where some of the narrative about Lalitā Devī is told as well (among many other topics).

One of the things I appreciated about this particular edition of the text is that it includes the Devanagari (of the Sanskrit), the transliteration, and the English translation (in the Meditation and Nāmāvalī sections), as well as a guide to pronunciation. Which makes it practical for chanting for those of us who don't know Sanskrit while also preserving the original text. And with the English translations included in the Nāmāvalī section, we can study the meaning of the Names.

I will point out that the introduction does show the biases of the translator, who apparently views the Vāmācāra (left-hand path) as lesser than the Dakṣiṇācāra (right hand path), which are two different approaches to tantra.

Nevertheless, Swami Tapasyananda has done a great service by publishing this text in a practical form that is more than suitable for those who might be interested in exploring the Names of Śrī Lalitā Devī, as well as for those who want to actually chant or sing Her sahasranāma as a devotional practice.

[o · Rating 3 out of 5]

intro was awful.
translations are good but keep in mind this carries a vedantik bias—sometimes too abstract and ascetic, so couple it with the other end of the spectrum when reading.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

this (the Swami Tapasyananda translation - ISBN 978-81-7823-099-3) is an excellent devotional edition intended for active use. it's portable and lightweight, and contains both the stotram and namavali forms. Bhaskararaya Makhin's commentary is still the go-to for the historical exegesis, but this one contains a decent if not dense historical intro. only minor flaw is that there are a few typos in the latin alphabet transliteration, which is mildly annoying, and while they can be corrected with pen/pencil and basic knowledge of sanskrit, would have been nice to have stronger proofing

[gargi random · Rating 3 out of 5]

intro sucked.
translations are good but keep in mind they carry a vedantik bias - sometimes too abstract and ascetic, so couple it with the other end of the spectrum when reading.