ଶ୍ରୀ ବୁଧ ସ୍ତୋତ୍ରମ୍

A chain of salutations to Budha rather than a description of him, every verse addressing him directly, and the epithets it picks are not the ones the other Mercury hymns use. Here he is the colour of kunkuma rather than green, blazing with the light of gold, wearing a golden garland and fond of the giving of gold. One name handles his parentage with real delicacy, calling him the son of the night's lover, which says whose child he is without saying it. He is a devotee of Vishnu, seated on a lion-throne with the hue of the karnikara flower, sword and shield and mace in his hands, golden-limbed and long-bearded, which no other hymn here gives him. Its closing verse leaves him standing on the chariot of the Sun, and promises the morning reciter that fear will not find him.