ശ്രീ വാഗ്വാദിനീ ഷട്കമ്

Six verses by the Śṛṅgeri Jagadguru Sacchidānanda Śivābhinava Nṛsiṃha Bhāratī, each ending on the same insistent refrain — vada vada Vāgvādini svāhā, speak, speak, you who make speech speak. The construction is a complaint that will not be put off. The first verse states the grievance directly: you are the giver of boons and the very ground on which unmotivated compassion is born, wife of the lotus-born — then why do you show no mercy to me? Tell me. The refrain doubles the imperative, which is the point of the whole piece: the goddess of speech is being asked, in speech, to speak, and her silence is the thing the hymn is about. It belongs with three other texts by the same author kept here, all of them addressing Sarasvatī in this register of respectful reproach rather than of praise.