The narrative frame
Within the Mahābhārata's own story, Yudhiṣṭhira, troubled after the devastating Kurukṣetra war, approaches the mortally wounded Bhīṣma — who is, by his own boon, able to choose the moment of his death and is awaiting an auspicious astrological time — and asks him six questions, the last of which becomes the occasion for the Sahasranāma: by praising whom can a person be freed from all bondage? Bhīṣma's answer is the recitation of Viṣṇu's thousand names.
How it is used
The complete Sahasranāma takes roughly 20–30 minutes to recite and is a common daily devotional practice, particularly on Ekādaśī (the lunar day sacred to Viṣṇu), during the month of Kārtik, and at Vaiṣṇava temple worship generally.
The opening verse
The Sahasranāma's first verse, giving its first nine names, is its most quoted:
A representative selection of names
This is a small, illustrative selection from the full thousand — not the complete list. Each numbered name below corresponds to its traditional position in the sequence.
Placement and versions
The most widely used version of the Sahasranāma is the Mahābhārata's, but variant versions also appear in the Padma Purāṇa, Skanda Purāṇa, and Garuḍa Purāṇa, with some differences in the names included and their sequence. A distinct version also exists within Sikh scripture, in the Sundar Gutka.
Major commentaries
Ādi Śaṅkara's Bhāṣya (commentary) is the most historically influential, notable for being written by a philosopher primarily associated with Śaiva-inflected Advaita rather than Vaiṣṇava sectarian affiliation — read by the tradition as testimony to the text's universal, non-sectarian spiritual authority. Parāśara Bhaṭṭar, a 12th-century Śrī Vaiṣṇava scholar in the Rāmānuja lineage, wrote a distinct commentary, the Bhagavad Guṇa Darpaṇam, interpreting the names from a Viśiṣṭādvaita perspective.
Vishnu as encompassing Shiva
Several names in the Sahasranāma (including "Śiva," appearing at more than one position in the sequence, and "Rudra") are names elsewhere associated primarily with Śiva. Śaṅkara's commentary addresses this directly, asserting that these names here praise Viṣṇu’s own auspicious nature rather than referring to a separate deity, while Parāśara Bhaṭṭar interprets "Śiva" as describing a quality Viṣṇu possesses (auspiciousness) rather than the deity Śiva by name.