Thursday 21 April 2016

18 Shakti Peetas ( Astadasa Shaktipeetalu)

The Shakti Peethas (holy places of cosmic power) are places of worship consecrated to the goddess 'Shakti', the female principal of Hinduism and the main deity of the Shakta sect. They are sprinkled throughout the Indian subcontinent.

This goddess is often associated both with Gowrī/Parvati, the benevolent goddess of harmony, marital felicity and longevity, with Durga, goddess of strength and valour, and with Mahakali, goddess of destruction of the evil.

History :- There was a great king called Daksha Prajapati who was son of Lord Brahma. He had 27 daughters and Sati devi is one among them. Sati devi got married to Lord Shiva. When Dashka entered the arena of a yaga performed by Agni, every one except Lord Shiva stood up as a mark of respect. Daksha felt insulted by Lord Shiva's behaviour. Later when Daksha conducted a yaga him self , he did not invite his daughter and his son in law.Though Sati felt bad because of the non invitation, she wanted to attend the yaga against the wish of Lord Shiva.When Sati, attended the yaga no body has cared for her and she felt insulted by the actions of her sisters and parents. Then when her father started abusing her husband she could not control her feelings and scarified herself at the place of yagna by creating agni from earth with her right thumb of her foot.Knowing this Lord Shiva removed one bunch of Jhatha from his head and hit it on the earth. From that Lord Veerabhadra has born and rushed to yaga spot and killed Daksha by cutting his head. Later Shiva went to the spot and taken the body of sati from the fire and started dancing with it. The world was terrorized from this Tandava Nritya and to stop this Nritya, Vishnu used his Sudarshan chakra and completely cut the Sati's body in to pieces. These body parts have fallen at various places in India and Srilanka. Where ever these parts have fallen the places are called Shaktipeethas. There are 18 such places and they are called Ashta(8) Dasa (10) Shaktipeethas.






Sr. No.PlacePart of the body fallenName of Shakti
1Trincomalee (Sri lanka)GroinShankari devi
2Kanchi (Tamil nadu)Back partKamakshi Devi
3Praddyumnam (West Bengal)Stomach partSri Srunkhala devi
4Mysore (Karnataka)HairChamundeshwari devi
5Alampur (Andhra Pradesh)Upper teethJogulamba devi
6Srisailam (Andhra Pradesh)Neck partBhramaramba devi
7Kolhapur (Maharastra)EyesMahalakshmi devi
8Nanded (Maharastra)Right handEka Veerika devi
9Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh)Upper lipMahakali devi
10Pithapuram (Andhra Pradesh)Left handPuruhutika devi
11Cuttack (Orissa)NavelGirija devi
12Draksharamam (Andhra Pradesh)Left cheekManikyamba devi
13Guwahati (Assam)VulvaKamarupa devi
14Prayaga (Uttar Pradesh)FingersMadhaveswari devi
15Jwala (Himachal Pradesh)Head partVaishnavi devi
16Gaya (Bihar)Breast partSarvamangala devi
17Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)WristVishalakshi devi
18Dantewada (Chattisgarh)ToothDanteswari devi
19KashmirRight handSaraswathi devi

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