ଶ୍ରୀ ପଦ୍ମା କଵଚମ୍

An armour of Padma from the Brahmavaivarta Purana, and it opens by giving its own lineage as a piece of cosmology: hear, best of brahmans, the supremely auspicious armour of Padma, which the lotus-navelled one gave to Brahma in the lotus at his navel. Having received that armour, Brahma created the world in that lotus, and by the grace of the lotus-dwelling goddess he came to have Lakshmi with him. So the armour is presented as older than creation and as the thing that made creation possible — a strong claim even by the standards of the form, and the reason this kavacha is treated with the weight it is. The thirty-two verses that follow set her names over the body in the usual way, and the colophon names it simply the Lakshmi Kavacha.