ବୁଧ ସ୍ତୋତ୍ରମ୍

Nine verses ascribed to Vasishtha, and each is built on a single letter: its words nearly all begin with the same sound, and the sound changes when the verse does. One is a run on pa — yellow-clothed, yellow-bodied, standing in a chariot with a yellow banner, son of the nectar-rayed one. The next runs on sa, then one on ba, then a, then ka, then ma, then ca. The hymn is meant to be heard as much as understood, and that is what separates it from the Skanda Purana recension beside it, with which it shares both its opening meditation and its closing verse. What the verses actually say is the ordinary matter of the Mercury hymns: son of the Moon, lord of Virgo, giver of intelligence, four-armed with sword and shield, seated on a lion. Its last verse calls the text secret and says Vasishtha spoke it long ago.