The Vishnu Sahasranama, the thousand names of Vishnu, is spoken within the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata. Yudhishthira, having heard the teaching of Bhishma Pitamaha on dharma, asks him who is the one deity of the world, what is the one refuge, and by praising whom a person reaches the good, and Bhishma Pitamaha answers with the thousand names. The text names Sage Veda Vyasa as the rishi of the hymn and anushtubh as its metre.
The names begin with Vishvam, the universe itself, followed by Vishnu, the all-pervading, and go on through his qualities and his forms. Tradition attributes a commentary on the names to Adi Shankaracharya, and teachers of the Sri Vaishnava, Madhva and Gaudiya traditions have written on them as well. In the verses recited after the hymn, Shiva tells Parvati that the name of Rama is equal to the thousand — a verse that also closes the Ramraksha Stotra.
In the Murajapam, held once every six years at the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the Vishnu Sahasranama is chanted alongside the Vedas through fifty-six days that end in the Lakshadeepam, the lighting of a lakh lamps. At Tirumala, devotees chant it together at the Nada Neerajanam Mandapam on the Ekadashi named after Bhishma Pitamaha.