śrī śiva stotram (varuṇa kṛtam)

Varuna's hymn to the Shiva of Madurai, nine verses, each closing on the same two words that end the five-syllabled mantra — dweller in the middle of Halasya, salutation to Shiva. The first verse is the burning of the three cities told entirely in instruments: to him whose bow was fashioned from the mountain of welfare, whose bowstring was made of the lord of all great serpents, whose chariot was the earth, whose arrow was the lord of Lakshmi. The second turns to what he does for people rather than against demons: devoted to the breaking of the affliction of devotees, higher than the highest, his throat marked with poison and coloured like a dark rain cloud, lord of beings, cause of the three worlds. The closing verse asks pardon for the presumption of praising him at all.