śrī jvālāmukhi aṣṭakam

Eight verses to Jwalamukhi in Kangra, and the poet's difficulty is that there is no image to describe — the goddess of that shrine is a set of flames coming out of rock — so the hymn describes light instead. The first verse gives the setting rather than the deity, the dark-cloud-coloured hills of the Jalandhara country ringed about her dwelling. The third is the best of them and is about the two elements together: an unwearying stream of clear bright water running through the inner rooms, and beside it, mother, a form that imitates the quieted tip of a burning flame. The second verse handles her plurality without pretending it away, saying she is sometimes the eldest and sometimes the youngest and sometimes the middle one, and though she is one she is thought of in many ways.