śrī vindhyeśvarī cālīsā

A Hindi chalisa to Vindhyavasini, whose shrine stands above the Ganga at Vindhyachal, and its opening doha states what her devotees value her for before any description begins: in the work of good people she makes no delay. What follows names her as the primal power and as the world-mother, riding a lion, and takes in the demons of the Devi Mahatmya in the usual way. The chalisa belongs to a shrine that is one point of a triangle — Vindhyavasini with Kali and Ashtabhuja on the neighbouring hills, walked between in a single circuit — and the local observance is what its requests assume. Its register is domestic and its promises are for the removal of hardship rather than for release.