ദേവൈഃ കൃതം ദേവീസ്തോത്രമ്

Six verses from the thirty-sixth chapter of the Arbuda section of the Skanda Purana, spoken by the gods, and short enough that its shape is easy to see: it opens in the gentlest register and ends in the fiercest, with nothing in between to prepare for the change. The first verse is all courtesy — salutation to you, mistress of the lords of gods; salutation, you of the lustre of gold; salutation, whose eyes are lotus petals; salutation, mother of the world. The fourth has gone somewhere else entirely: Bhairavi of terrible form, holding the sword over Chanda and Munda, dear to the spirits, of great body, fierce in her onset. The same goddess is being addressed throughout.