nAmA

[GANESANS at cl.uh.edu]

	RE: nAmA

GANESANS at cl.uh.edu wrote:

>While talking to Rajarathna Bhattar of Meenakshi Temple, Houston,
>he told that there is only one Siva namavali, but many for
>goddesses depending on the kshetram. Is this true that
>there is only one siva sahasranAmam?

R. Balasubramanian wrote:
*No this information is incorrect. 

Thanks for the information. I had suspected this
after I talked to Sri. Bhattar.
Regards,
N. Ganesan

I went back to my old files & found:

Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 17:44:13 BST
From: Gary Tubb <gat4 at columbia.edu>

The text of Nilakantha's commentary is included in a new book by
Professor RK Sharma entitled _Sivasahasranamastakam (Eight Collections of
Hymns Containing One Thousand and Eight Names of Siva)_.  Of the seven
other Sivasahasranama texts presented in the book there is one other one
(from the Lingamahapurana) with a Sanskrit commentary.  The book is
being published by Nag Publishers in Delhi, and also includes a very
useful glossary of all the names from the texts with English translation
("Sivasahasranamakosa"), as well as appendices giving passages from the
Vedic samhitas.

R. Balasubramanian wrote:
*To my knowledge there are three
*sahasranAma-s

*1. in the shiva purANa - which has the legendary story of vishhNu
*offering one of his eyes instead of a lotus that disappeared associated
*with it.

*2. in the padma purANa - which was told by kR^ishhNa to mArkaNDeya

*3. in the anusAsana parva of the MBh, which kR^ishhNa used to propitiate
*shiva. This is the one usually used in temples in Tamil Nadu.

*Doubtless there are atleast a few more. I am fairly certain there is
*another one in the skanda purANa.

*As far as 108 names go there are many, many. The one usually used is
*from the skanda purANa. There are others from bhavishhya, mAtsya etc
*also.

*Ramakrishnan.