Mahishasura Mardini Stotram:
This is a stotram with flowing yet ringing sounds. The stotram sounds simply wash over a listener irrespective of whether one understand the meaning or not.
It is unclear when exactly and who composed this exemplary stotram, the sound of which is both soothing and agitating at the same time. Some believe this very popular stotram of Goddess Durga was written by Ramakrishna Kavi. Nothing more is known about the author. Tenali Rama was also known as Ramakrishna and he was a devotee of Durga. But there is no clear evidence that he wrote this. Some believe it is by Adi Shankaracharya who wrote this in a blitz of sudden divine inspiration. Adi Shankara was not really known as a devotee of Durga and most of his other known compositions are full of philosophical meaning and not just blissful play of sounds in praise of Gods or Goddesses.
Due to its very poetic nature and repetition of words in the same stanza but with enormously different meanings, this strotram is extremely difficult to translate. Any translation reads extremely disjointed - as if the lyricist just moved from beautiful flowers to a ferocious battle between one word and the very next.
It is the musical play of sounds and not meaning of the words that make this stotram truly remarkable.

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