Shakti Peetha 1
The Shakti Peetha (Sanskrit: शक्ति पीठ, Śakti Pīṭha, seat of
Shakti) is a place of worship consecrated to the goddess Shakti or Sati,
the female principal of Hinduism and the main deity of the Shakta sect.
They are sprinkled throughout the Indian subcontinent.
The
history of Daksha yagna and Shakti's self immolation had immense
significance in shaping the ancient Sanskrit literature and even had
impact on the culture of India. It led to the development of the concept
of Shakti Peethas and there by strengthening Shaktism. Enormous stories
in Puranas & other Hindu religious books took the Daksha yagna as
the reason for its origin. It is an important incident in Shaivism
resulting in the emergence of Shree Parvati in the place of Shakti Devi
and making Shiva a grihastashrami (house holder) leading to the origin
of Ganapathy and Subrahmanya.
Shakti Peethas are
shrines or divine places of the Mother Goddess. These are places that
are believed to have enshrined with the presence of Shakti due to the
falling of body parts of the corpse of Sati Devi, when Lord Shiva
carried it and wandered throughout Aryavartha in sorrow. There are 51
Shakti Peeth linking to the 51 alphabets in Sanskrit. Each temple has
shrines for Shakti and Kalabhairava, and mostly Shakti and Kalabharava
in different Shakti Peeth have different names.
Some
of the great religious texts like the Shiva Purana, the Devi Bhagavata,
the Kalika Purana and the AstaShakti recognize four major Shakti
Peethas (centers), like Bimala (Pada Khanda) (inside the Jagannath
temple of Puri, Odisha), Tara Tarini (Sthana Khanda, Purnagiri, Breasts)
(Near Berhampur, Odisha), Kamakhya Temple (Yoni khanda) (Near Guwahati,
Assam) and Dakhina Kalika (Mukha khanda) (Kolkata, West Bengal)
originated from the limbs of the Corpse of Mata Sati in the Satya Yuga
Apart
from these four there are 51 other famous Peethas recognised by
religious texts. According to the Pithanirnaya Tantra the 51 peethas are
scattered all over India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan
and Pakistan. The Shivacharita besides listing 51 maha-peethas, speaks
about 26 more upa-peethas. The Bengali almanac, Vishuddha Siddhanta
Panjika too describes the 51 peethas including the present modified
addresses.
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