śrī dakṣiṇakālī kavacam

The longest of the Kali armours here, sixty-three units in a dialogue on the peak of Kailasa where Bhairavi, seated on Bhairava's breast, asks the question these texts commonly open with: you hinted at this armour before, so why was it never disclosed? The guarding is done by Vatuka in his forms — the fire-Vetala at the south, Agnijihva at the south-west and the west — rather than by the goddesses a Durga armour would name for the quarters. The whole apparatus of practice stands in front of the armour proper. The last verse ends not with a promise but with an admission: truly and truly and again truly, I am not able to describe the power of this armour.