rāga: varāli, tāḷa: khaṇḍa cāpu.
भजाम्यहं सदा दुर्गामग्निवर्णाम्
निजभक्तपालिनीं ज्वालनेत्रिणीम्
त्र्यम्बकादिदेवप्रियां परिपालयमां वैरोचनीम्
कात्यायनीं महाराज्ञीमार्यविनुताम्
प्रत्यादिदिनवेङ्कटप्रणवपूजितामम्बाम्
bhajāmyahaṁ sadā durgām agnivarṇām
nijabhaktapālinīṁ jvālanetriṇīm
tryambakādidevapriyāṁ paripālayamāṁ vairocanīm
kātyāyanīṁ mahārājñīm āryavinutām
pratyādidinaveṅkaṭapraṇavapūjitām ambām
For those who are knowledgable in the Veda, the immediate parallels to and inspiration from the famous Durgāsūkta (the first Vedic passage I ever learned) will be immediately apparent. The rāga varāḷi here evokes a powerful and grand mood, which I think is accented by beginning the kr̥ti with a mahāprāṇākṣara (bhakāra) and the words agnivarṇāṁ (fire-hued). Here is a rough translation:
I medidate always on Durgā, the fiery-hued.
The protector of her true devotees, the one with blazing-eyes,
beloved by the foremost deity Tryambaka, protect me, the one born of flames!
Kātyāyanī, empress, praised by those who are noble,
worshipped foremost every day by Veṅkaṭapraṇava, mother!
In the Taittirīya āraṇyaka (specifically in the mahānārāyaṇam), the only Vedic hymn to Durgā appears, where the goddess is identified with Agni-jātavedas, described to be born of fire and blazing with the heat of tapas. The same mantra-s appear in the r̥gveda-saṁhita but without the durgāgāyātrī (kātyāyanāya vidmahe'ti) and the mantra embodying the entire essence of the goddess: tāmagnivarṇāmiti. Encoding the essence of that particular mantra into a kr̥ti captures said essence for everyone, even those who might not know the sūkta itself.