ജീണ മാതാ ചാലീസാ

A Hindi chalisa to Jeen Mata, whose hill shrine stands near Sikar in Shekhawati, and it addresses her from the start as a descent of Durga rather than as a local goddess — the killer of Mahishasura, with a golden parasol above her head, before whom spirits and ghosts and Yama himself are afraid. One line names the thing that actually distinguishes her: you took a body in a Kshatriya house, which is the family tradition the shrine rests on and the reason the Rajput houses of the region keep her. The verses then run through the identifications the form requires, Gauri and Sharada and Kali together, and Brahma and Vishnu and Shankara meditating on her without reaching her end. Its opening dohas admit that the beauty of the image cannot be described and then attempt it anyway.