చాముణ్డా చాలీసా

A Hindi chalisa which is really the Devi Mahatmya retold in chaupais, and it takes its time. Shumbha and Nishumbha have emptied the three worlds; Vayu and Agni and Yama and Kubera, the sun and moon and Varuna, are all in difficulty and come humiliated to the Himalaya. Kali comes out in anger. The messenger Sugriva is killed first, then Chanda comes and runs; then he returns with armies past counting, and Chanda and Munda come drunk and roaring with a fourfold army. The verse everything turns on is the naming: she takes their two heads in her hand and smiles, and it is Sarasvati who calls out to her, and from that moment the name Chamunda is hers. Its opening dohas describe her before any of this — blue, ten-armed, forever fierce — and its later verses go on to Kalakeya and the rest.