śrī dhūmāvatī hṛdayam

A heart-hymn to Dhumavati whose construction is the thing to notice: after the meditation the verses run through the alphabet, taking the consonants in order and beginning each verse with the next one. Ka opens with her as Kalika at the beginning of the age, who set Madhu and Kaitabha going; then ga on her being the house of the strands and knowable by them; then kha with the skull-staff and the shield; then gha, a run on words for whirling and roaring and striking; then ca, chewing the pieces of brains and tearing Chanda and Munda; then cha, with the severed neck, in the form of Chinnamasta. Its meditation gives her plainly — smoke-coloured in smoke-coloured cloth, teeth showing, hair loose, in a chariot marked with a crow, the winnowing basket in her hand.