Navaratri Mantra

i hope everyone had a good navaratri!

i figured this would be a good a time as any to translate one of the most repeated mantras from the devi mahatmyam!

on the textual difference between sarvamaṅgalamaṅgalye and sarvamaṅgalamāṃgalye:

this version i am posting is taken from the excellent critical edition of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa published by the University of Baroda, Vadodara. i was surprised as anyone to read that the long A variant is most likely that- a variant, repeated through copying and recitation. neither version is "correct" necessarily, afaik both are alive and well in recitation traditions. but when i make these videos i strive for accuracy to the original text when there is one.