ಶ್ರೀ ಶಾಲಿಗ್ರಾಮ ಸ್ತೋತ್ರಮ್

Thirty-three verses that are less a praise than a way of reading stones. Yudhishthira asks what the best worship of the deity is, and the answer he is given is a description of the shalagrama and of what its markings mean, sign by sign. Where a subtle wheel is seen upon a black surface, one verse says, it gives good fortune, offspring and every ease; and so the text goes on through the marks, each with the form of Vishnu it carries and the fruit it brings. A viniyoga stands at the head, naming Narayana as its deity. The closing verses turn to the water that has washed such a stone: drinking it undoes the sin of a crore of births, and letting a single drop fall on the ground is eight times that sin.