ଶ୍ରୀ ଛିନ୍ନମସ୍ତା ଦେଵି ହୃଦଯମ୍

The heart of Chinnamastā as the Nandyāvarta gives it, framed as a conversation in which Pārvatī says she has already heard the worship and the rest from his own lotus mouth and now wishes to hear the hṛdaya. Mahādeva's answer sets the text's standing before a word of it is given: until this day I have spoken it to no one, and because you have asked I will speak it for love of you. What follows is the apparatus a hṛdaya carries and a plain stotra does not — the viniyoga, the placing of the syllables, the meditation — rather than narrative, so the record is a manual for a practice rather than a hymn to be read through. Its closing verses name what it is for in restrained terms: the quieting of enemies, the fruit that is wished for, length of life and health for those who recite it.