ശ്രീ ഹാടകേശ്വരാഷ്ടകമ്

Eight verses to Hatakeshvara — the Shiva of the golden linga, and in this hymn the Nataraja of the dance as well, since every verse closes on the same pair of lines: I salute the lord of the dance, I worship the lord of gold. The first is a picture built downward from the head: the waves of the river of the gods shining out from within the tangle of his matted hair, the eye at the brow, the crest bright with the moon, the ash for ornament, the lord of serpents worn as a necklace. The second turns from the figure to what he does, and each thing is a burning: burner of the cities and of Andhaka, burner of the mind-born one, destroyer of the great one who eats the earth, giver of the wished-for thing, sole maker of the three worlds.