ଶ୍ରୀ ମହିଷମର୍ଦିନୀ କଵଚମ୍

An armour from the Vishvasara Tantra, spoken by Shiva, and built as an acrostic on its own ten-syllabled vidya: each syllable of the mantra is taken in turn and given a part of the body to guard and a form of the Goddess to guard it — klim at the head, the next at the eyes, Hingula at the face, Shveta at the tongue, and so on through heart, navel, throat, ears and shanks until svaha covers the whole. Nine powers, from Prabha and Nandini to Jaya and Vishuddha, are set about her, and the protection asked for is named place by place: at a king's court, in a fort, before lion and tiger, in the cremation ground, in the wilderness, in a boat, in the midst of fire. Nearly a third of the text is the discipline that surrounds it — how the kavacha is to be written and worn, and to whom it may not be shown at all.