shree shani kavacham'

Shani Kavacham is a protective stotra addressed to Shanaishchara, and its closing line places it in the Padma Purana. A kavacha is not a hymn of praise. It is built as armour: the reciter asks the deity to stand over each part of the body in turn, and this one closes with sarvani cha mamangani patu bhaskaranandanah, may the son of the sun guard every limb of mine.

Significance

Before the verses begin, the text states its own credentials, the way a kavacha always does. Kashyapa is the rishi, the seer through whom it came down. The metre is anushtup, thirty-two syllables to a verse, the same steady four-line measure most Puranic shloka use, which is why the kavacha is easy to hold in memory. Shanaishchara is the devata. Then three sounds: sham as the bija, the seed syllable that carries the deity in sound; vaam as the shakti, the energy the seed is spoken with; yam as the keelaka, literally the pin or bolt that is drawn out to release the text. People skip these lines as preamble. They are the text telling you who it belongs to and how it is meant to be handled. From there the verses move down the body, limb by limb, each part handed to Shani under a different name, until the final line gathers up everything not separately mentioned. The phala-shruti is short. Recited with shraddha, the text says, it removes all peeda. Peeda means affliction, distress, pressure of any kind. The stotra names no particular misfortune and promises no particular outcome, and it is worth noticing where the text stops.

How and when to chant

Saturday is the day, after the morning bath, sitting facing east or north with a sesame-oil lamp lit. If you know the nyasa, do it first, touching head, mouth and heart as the rishi, the chhandas and the devata are named. If you do not, most households accept reciting the kavacha plainly, and that is what is actually done in the majority of homes. Counts vary by family. Once daily is the common keeping, with a longer count on Saturdays; some read it every day through a Shani transit and then let it go back to weekly. Black sesame, urad dal and dark cloth are the usual offerings, as with any Shani recitation.