ശ്രീ ധന്വന്തരി സ്തോത്രമ്

Eighteen units in which the root mantra and the verses alternate, so that the same line returns between each pair: salutation to the Lord Dhanvantari, holder of the pot of nectar, destroyer of every disease, lord of the three worlds, to Shri Mahavishnu. The verses set between the returns are meditations on that one figure — reviving the worlds with wide rays of nectar like a flood of moonlight, holding the knowledge that is itself the pot, seated within the disc of the cool-rayed moon, the supreme lord whose happiness is measureless and in himself. The repetition is the form and not an accident of the copy: the stotra is strung on its own mantra like a garland on its thread, and a reading that skips the returns has left out most of it.