
శ్రీ మహాశాస్తృ అష్టోత్తరశతనామావలీ
(Sri Maha Sastha Ashtottara Shatanamavali in Telugu)
Also known as shri maha sastha ashtottara shatanamavali · shree maha sastha ashtottara shatanamavali · maha sastha ashtottara shatanamavali
A hundred and eight names of Shasta, the deity worshipped at Sabarimala and across the south as Ayyappa, and the list begins by working the title itself. Shasta means the one who rules or instructs, and the first names simply widen the field of what he rules: the great Shasta, the Shasta of everything, the Shasta of the worlds, and then the one of great strength. The name Ayyappa does not appear; this is the older Sanskrit vocabulary for the same deity, and the record belongs with the temple liturgy rather than with the pilgrimage songs. It is used as an archana, one name to each offering of a flower, which is how the hundred and eight are actually got through in a shrine.