śrī dakṣiṇāmūrti kavacam (trailokyasammohanam)

An armour hymn from the forty-fourth chapter of the Dakshinamurti Samhita, set in a conversation between Lakshmi and Narayana and reaching the reader through a second frame: Narada, the tiger among sages and giver of knowledge, comes to Harishchandra, the long-armed king born in the line of the sun, who bows and asks for it. The opening meditation is the standard one — bearer of Ganga, wearer of the moon, beloved of Uma, lord of the world, holding the gesture of knowledge — after which the kavacha proceeds part by part over the body in the usual way of the form, setting a name or a syllable of the mantra on each limb in turn, and ends with the directions and the whole person enclosed. It is long, and carries its own ritual apparatus with it.