śrī tārā sahasranāmāvalī

The salutation form of the thousand names of Tara from the Brihannila Tantra, whose verse form also stands in this corpus. Its viniyoga is the most useful sentence in the whole group, because it settles what the tradition means by the name: the seer is Akshobhya, the metre brihati and ushnik, and the deity is given as three at once — Ugratara, Ekajata and Nilasarasvati, the fierce one, the one with a single matted lock, and the blue goddess of speech. The names then open on night: Tara, the Night, the great Night, the Night of time, the skull-bearer, Kalika, the giver of desire, illusion and the great illusion.