Sri Maha Lakshmi Ashtottara Sata Namavali

About this stotra

The name Lakshmi comes from the Sanskrit root lakṣ — to perceive, observe, or mark. In its oldest use lakṣmī meant simply a sign or token; taken as a good sign, it came to mean auspiciousness, fortune, and prosperity, and then the goddess who embodies them. Her earliest hymn, the Śrī Sūkta preserved with the Rigveda, praises her as the source of abundance and purity. As Mahalakshmi she is worshipped for wealth of every kind — outer prosperity and the inner riches of well-being and grace alike. Consort of Vishnu, she arose from the churning of the ocean of milk and accompanies him through his descents into the world.
An ashtottara-sata-namavali is a 'garland of one hundred and eight names', a litany in which each epithet of the goddess is offered with the salutation 'Om, salutations to…'. This one names Mahalakshmi as primordial Nature and as Knowledge, as the lotus in all its aspects, as the destroyer of poverty and giver of every auspiciousness, and finally as sovereign of the worlds. Each translation here gives the meaning of the name it renders.