Sanskrit Hymns Across Traditions: Studying Stotras

Sanskrit hymns of praise (stotra/ stuti/ stava) have been popular and influential within multiple religious traditions for thousands of years. Sanskrit hymns remain lively, meaningful parts of the religious lives of countless Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains today, and new stotras continue to be composed and recited around the world. The academic study of these hymns has made notable progress in recent decades as scholars have paid increasing attention to such compositions.

This book brings together new scholarship by eleven scholars for the first such volume focused on this major genre of religious literature. Central themes of the volume include the stotra genre itself, the role of such hymns of praise in ritual and performative contexts (including liturgy and preaching), and the public and polemical dimensions of such hymns across traditions. The chapters dwell on theoretical, methodological, and comparative concerns, and they contain original translations of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain stotras.

A valuable pedagogical resource for educators teaching about Asian religions and literature, especially in comparative contexts, this book also establishes the foundation for future research and scholarship on a genre of religious poetry popular across South Asian religious traditions.

Hamsa Stainton is Associate Professor in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University (Montréal, Canada). He is the author of Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir (2019) and co-editor (with Bettina Sharada Bäumer) of Tantrapuṣpāñjali: Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir; Studies in Memory of Pandit H.N. Chakravarty.

Anna Lee White is Lecturer in the Humanities Department of Marianopolis College (Montréal, Canada). Her research interests include Hindu devotional literature, hagiographies, and gender studies.