Sri Varahi Dwadasa Nama Stotram

Sri Varahi Dwadasa Nama Stotram is one of the shortest hymns to Varahi: after the viniyoga come two verses holding twelve names and a single verse of phala shruti. The viniyoga names the rishi as Ashvanana, the horse-faced Hayagriva, with anushtup metre and Sri Varahi as deity, and dedicates the japa to sarva sankata harana, the removal of every crisis.

The twelve names

The first verse begins Panchami Dandanatha cha Sanketa Samayeshwari. Panchami is usually read as Varahi's place as fifth of the Sapta Matrikas and her link with the fifth lunar day. Dandanatha marks her as commander of Lalitha's army, a title the Lalitha Sahasranamam also uses. Sanketa, Samayeshwari and Samayasanketa are generally explained as the goddess who presides over the conventions and secret signs of Sri Vidya worship. Varahi and Potrini point to her boar face, and Shiva to her auspicious nature.

The second verse adds Vartali, Mahasena, Ajnachakreshwari and Arighni. Ajnachakreshwari is read either as ruler of the ajna chakra between the brows or as the officer who carries out Lalitha's command, and Arighni is the slayer of enemies. The verse closes by addressing a sage: nama dwadashakam mune.

The promise

The last verse says that one who knows the twelve names stands as if inside a cage of vajra (vajrapanjara madhyagah) and never suffers in a crisis. Because a reading takes about a minute, devotees repeat it many times as japa, especially in Ashadha Gupta Navaratri, which Telugu households keep as Varahi Navaratri, and on Panchami days.