Ramaraksha Stotra — opening verse

The Ramaraksha Stotra is a rakshā — an armour text. Its body works downward over the reciter's head, eyes, ears and limbs, asking a different name of Rama to guard each one, and this verse is the preface that explains why the names are worth invoking at all. śatakoṭi is a deliberate pun and the verse is usually read twice because of it. It means 'a hundred crore', and it also means 'a hundred sharp edges' — koṭi is the point of a weapon. So the line describes both the immeasurable extent of Rama's story and the armoury it amounts to. A stotra that is about to arm the reciter opens by calling its own material a weapon. The colophon names Budhakaushika, and the closing verses say he wrote it down at dawn after Shiva dictated it to him in a dream.