ଦକ୍ଷପ୍ରୋକ୍ତା କାଲୀସ୍ତୁତିଃ

A second stuti of Daksha from the eighth chapter of the Kalika Purana, reported here by Markandeya, and quite unlike the other under the same title: where that one is an argument, this begins as a portrait. Kalika is seen seated upon a lion, black, full-breasted, four-armed and fair of face, holding a blue lotus, giving boons and safety with a sword in her hand, red-eyed, her loosened hair lovely. Nineteen verses carry it outward from that image until she is called the power of the universe, subtle and unconquered, the one made manifest by the breaths as they are checked above and below. Both stutis sit in the same chapter and neither repeats the other.