candramasstotram

A short hymn from the Mantramahārṇava, attributed to Durvāsā, whose eight verses are almost entirely made of whiteness. He is in white cloth with a white body, crowned, of white radiance, holding a staff, two-armed; bright as curd and conch and frost; born of the ocean of milk. The images then move from colour to function and the hymn becomes about nourishment rather than light: his rays are made of nectar and feed the whole forest of herbs, and he is called the cause of the savour in all food, the child of the ocean. Two of his relations are named in successive verses and both matter to how he is worshipped — he is accompanied by Rohiṇī, the constellation he is married to, and he is the dweller in Hara's crown, which is why a hymn to the moon so often ends up describing Śiva's head.