śrī śākambharī cālīsā

An Awadhi chalisa which spends its middle almost entirely on her four hands, one at a time. One holds the pleasing of Hara and a fistful of arrows for driving off the wicked; another carries the bow with which she keeps her devotees and takes away the heat of existence; the third is the one the goddess is named for, heaped with vegetables and flowers and roots and fruit and ripe shoots, of many tastes together — and the chalisa stops to say that this is the reason for the name Shakambhari; the fourth holds a fresh lotus. Around that it gives the story in outline: Durgama of Hiranyaksha's line, the boon won by fierce austerity, the Veda carried off and dharma destroyed, the gods at the Himalaya, and the goddess appearing many-eyed. It also names Harishchandra, whose grief she took away, which is the frame the Mahatmya uses.