duḥsvapnanāśaka śrī bālā kavacam

A short armour of Bala Tripurasundari recited against bad dreams. The meditation gives her the shape the whole Bala literature keeps to — the light of the disc of the young sun, four arms, three eyes, holding noose and goad and the gestures of granting and of fearlessness. The armour itself is unusually plain: instead of setting syllables on the limbs it posts a goddess at each quarter, Bhairavi in the east, Bala in the south, Malini in the west, Vasini in the north, and works outward from there until nothing is left uncovered. The closing verse calls it supremely secret, more hidden than the hidden, and promises long life and both enjoyment and release — the standard claim, but here attached to the small and particular trouble of a disturbed night.