బుధమఙ్గలస్తోత్రమ్

Not a hymn so much as the closing packet of a Wednesday worship, and its first two verses are astrology rather than praise. Budha is set out as a graha is set out in a handbook: gentle, north-facing, yellow, lord of Magadha, born in the Atreya gotra, holding the north-east; friend to Saturn and Venus and always the enemy of the cold-rayed one, which is to say of the Moon, who is his own father. Lord of Virgo and of Gemini, with Vishnu for his presiding deity. Only after that does anyone address him, and what comes then is the universal apology: I do not know how to invoke you, I do not know how to dismiss you, I do not know worship at all, forgive me. Then one direct request, that he who begets intelligence should give the understanding of what is real, and the offering is made over.