In light of your reply, I'm posting this which was sent to me off-list

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I found the following entry in Böhtlingk's small Petersburg Dictionary:

"argalāstuti f. und argalāstotra n. Bez. eines dem Devīmāhātmya 
vorangehenden und dasselbe verschliessenden Lobgesanges" (= Name of a 
hymn of praise preceding the Devīmāhātmya and sealing the same).

As you know, argala means "bolt, latch".

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Argala and kīlaka are synonymous, and from this entry in Boethlink-Roth  it appears that  the  argalāstotra has the same relationship to the  Devīmāhātmya as a kīlaka syllable to a stotra.  I.e.in the preamble of many stotras 6 items are listed, one of which is  the kīlaka. syllable.  I.e. ṛṣi, chandas, devatā, bija, śakti and kīlaka.

But for over 10 years I've been trying to find information on what exactly, in the context of this kind of preamble of a stotra, is the meaning of the kīlaka.syllable.

a) Would it be possible for a french speaking indologist to translate the entry for kīlaka (which I've attached) in the tantrikabhidanakosa.

b) Other than this entry in TAK does anyone know of any articles on  kīlaka in this context.

Thanks,

Harry Spier