ശ്രീ ദത്താത്രേയ പഞ്ജര സ്തോത്രമ്

A cage rather than an armour, and the difference is structural: instead of assigning limbs to protectors it encloses the worshipper inside a diagram. After a meditation on Dattātreya white with ash, one hand in the gesture of exposition and the eyes half closed in the pleasure of contemplation, the text becomes a single long prose mantra. Within it the eight petals of the lotus seat are bound with eight utterances of Oṁ, the four corners with four of hrīṃ, and the four doors with four of hrāṃ, so that the enclosure is sealed on every side before anything is asked for. The requests that follow are frankly worldly and frankly magical — the drawing over of gods, worlds and enjoyments, the increase of Lakṣmī's wealth, the driving off of another's mantra and another's rite, the guarding of one's own — and it ends huṃ phaṭ svāhā.