विष्णुसहस्रनामावलिः शाङ्करभाष्यसमेता /4

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
 
THE warm reception accorded last year by the devotees of
Lalitā to the revised and enlarged second edition of my
English translation of Lalitaā Sahasranāma, with the com-
mentary of Bhaāskararaāya, has induced me to respond to
the call of the devotees of our Lord Vishnu, by publishing
in a revised and enlarged form my English translation of
Vishnu Sahasranāma with Sri SŚri Śankara's commentary
and those of others. The first edition of this translation
was brought out by me, a quarter of a century ago, under
the auspices of that true patriotic Aryan, the late lamented
and venerable Dr. Subramania Iyer.
 
In preparing this second edition, I have carefully
consulted all the available commentaries now extant. But
while I was touring in Malabar last summer, I came across
an old MSS. of a Vyākhya by some Sanyāsin and a glos-
sary on it by one Nīlakantha which I secured with the help
of the then President of the Malabar District Board,
Mr. Madhava Raja. I found the author of the Vyākhya had
consulted all the then available commentaries by our
great Āchryās, and had composed one verse for each name,
called Naāmakārikā. Being a follower of Sri SŚri Śankara, he
gives first Sri SŚri Śankara's explanation and then those of
others, wherever there is a difference, which I found to be
verbatim quotations mostly from SŚri Parāsara Bhatta's
Vyākhyaā. Sri Parāsara Bhatta belongs to the school of
Visishtādvaitins and hence he bases his explanations on the