śrī dhūmāvatī kavacam

A kavacha from the conversation of Bhairavi and Bhairava, asked for once the worship of Dhumavati has been explained, its viniyoga naming Pippalada as seer. What makes it unlike other armours is what it uses for guards. The syllables of the goddess's own name are split across the face, dhum on the head and the forehead, Dhuma on the eyes, vati on the ears; and after that every limb is given to one of her inauspicious epithets, the long one, the one in soiled clothes, the one who holds the winnowing basket, the harsh one, the colourless one, the bold one, the bringer of fear. A verse near the end stops assigning limbs and simply lists her: hair grown long, crooked and crooked-eyed, worn out by hunger and thirst, fond of quarrel. What is asked for is that no hostile rite should so much as touch the body, and Bhairava says three times over that the text is not to be made public.