shree dakshinaamoorti kavacham' (rudrayaamale)

A kavacham is an armour made of words: it names each part of the body and sets a form of the deity over it. This one is spoken by Ishvara to Parvati - the verses alternate paarvatyuvaacha and eeshvara uvaacha - and its colophon places it in the Rudrayamala. The deity is Dakshinamurthy, Shiva as the silent teacher, so the armour asked for here guards the intellect as much as the body.

Significance

What sets this kavacham apart from the usual protective texts is what it asks for. Read the phala-shruti in verses nine to eleven and the list is a scholar's list: jnana, command over both speech and its meaning, virya, the animadi siddhis, long life, health, aishvarya, and the removal of fear of untimely death. The text also sets conditions rather than handing out a blanket promise. It says the one who recites it three times at dawn, purified, every day for a year, and again at the three sandhyas - and who is already trained in Veda and shastra - will find poetry and drama coming out of his mouth.

Those are the text's own claims, reported as the text makes them. Worth noticing is the shape of the bargain: a year of unbroken daily discipline, prior study, and ritual purity come first; the siddhis are named at the end. That is a different register from the stotras that promise everything to a single reading, and it fits the deity - Dakshinamurthy does not give shortcuts, he gives understanding to someone who has already done the work.

How and when to chant

Dawn, before sunrise, after bathing. Three repetitions in that first sitting is what the text specifies, and the fuller practice adds recitation at each of the three sandhyas - dawn, midday, dusk. The period named is one year, unbroken. That is demanding, and most people who take it up keep to the dawn recitation alone and let the sandhya additions go.

Thursday and Guru Purnima are the strong days, as with any Dakshinamurthy text. Face north, seated, with a lamp lit; the anga-nyasa structure of the verses means it is usually recited slowly, touching or attending to each part of the body as its verse names it - head, forehead, eyes, throat, arms, and on down. Do not rush the limb verses; the whole design of a kavacha is that nothing is left uncovered. Students, teachers, lawyers, singers and anyone whose livelihood is speech are the ones who most often take this text up in Karnataka, for the reason its phala-shruti states plainly.