mṛtyuñjaya stotram (narasiṃha purāṇa)

Mārkaṇḍeya's hymn from the tenth chapter of the Narasiṃha Purāṇa, called the conqueror of death and kept here as an extract, its verses numbered from thirty-three. The style is unlike the ordinary stotra: instead of complete sentences it piles long vocative compounds one on another, so the god is approached through an accumulating heap of address rather than through statement. He is laid on the endless serpent's coils, contemplated without pause by Sanaka, Sananda and Sanatkumāra with their eyes fixed on the nose-tip, and sung day after day by gandharvas and vidyādharas, yakṣas and kinnaras. A run of verses then works through the number three — bearer of the three qualities, the three truths, the three fires, sharer of the three Vedas, of the triple dwelling, holder of the triple staff — before closing simply, as lord of the worlds and beloved of sacrifice.