ശ്രീ ഭുവനേശ്വരീ കവചമ്

A Rudrayamala kavacha whose title is not victory over the three worlds but their wellbeing, spoken by Ishvara at Parvati's asking, with Sadashiva named as its seer. Its opening stanzas run down the body in the ordinary way, hrim on the head, aim on the right eye, hrim on the left, shrim at the right ear. Then it does what the other armours do not. Instead of continuing with single seeds it hands each remaining quarter to a whole vidya named by its syllable-count, and each of those is a different goddess: the seventeen-syllabled Annapurna, the twenty-syllabled at the head, the ten-syllabled Jayadurga dark as a raincloud, the eight-syllabled Durga bearing conch and discus and bow, Mahishasuramardini at the south-west, Padmavati on her lotus in the west, and Bala at the crown. The armour is in effect a map of the goddess's many vidyas laid over one body.