śrī vīrabhadrāṣṭakam

Eight verses to Virabhadra, the form Shiva made to destroy Daksha's sacrifice, and the first line names him by that act rather than by any attribute: skilled in the method of wrecking Daksha's rite. Each verse is bound by alliteration on one letter, and the second is a run on ka — the staff of bones, hard and terrible tusks, a garland of skulls made into a lovely necklace, a serpent for a chain that takes away Kama's pride, and ash smeared on the limbs. The third moves to bha and gives him the burning of the cities. What holds the portrait together is the eye: the fire blazing from his brow, by which the enemy was turned to ash, is set against the lotus-eyes wide open in the same verse. The hymn is in the imperative throughout — worship Virabhadra.