śrī dakṣiṇāmūrti daśakam

Ten verses by the Sringeri Jagadguru Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati, each ending on the same wish — may Dakshinamurti stand before me — and each opening on the letter pa, so that the alliteration carries the whole poem. The first sets a garland of punnaga and water-born flowers at his throat and calls him practised at breaking the pride of the three cities. The second has his lotus feet worshipped by Vishnu, by Indra and by the lotus-born Brahma, and names him the giver of the arts in full measure. What the sequence builds is not an argument but a presence: verse by verse the same figure is asked to come and stand in front of the reciter, until the closing colophon names its author.