śrī vāmana cālīsā

A Hindi chalisa to Vamana, the dwarf, and it keeps to the one story he has. He takes the form and the qualities of a brahmin, and the chalisa dates the appearing exactly, to the twelfth of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada — which is the day the observance is kept. What follows is Bali's sacrifice and the three steps, and the peculiar sympathy these Vamana texts have for the demon king who kept his word. Its opening dohas ask in the ordinary way for shelter and for freedom from difficulty, and address him by two names at once, the lord of Lakshmi and the descent of Vishnu as a young brahmachari, which is how the form is understood: not a trick played on a generous man, but the god assuming the smallest shape he could in order to ask.