śrī mahālakṣmī kavacam 2 (brahma-śuka saṃvāda)

A second Mahalakshmi armour from the Brahma Purana, this one taught by Brahma to Shuka, and it states its purposes in a list before it begins — which makes plain that a kavacha is a practical instrument rather than a devotional one. I shall tell the armour of Mahalakshmi that gives every desire, quiets every sin, destroys evil disease; that quiets the affliction of the planets and breaks their ill aspects, that quiets an evil death and destroys evil poverty. What follows over thirty-six verses is the standard placement of her names across the limbs and the quarters, but the opening is unusual in naming planetary affliction and untimely death alongside the ordinary asking, which is the register in which this text was actually used.