Shakti Peethas

The Shakti Pithas are places of worship consecrated to the goddess Shakti or Parvati or Sati or Durga, the female principal of Hinduism and the main deity of the Shakta sect. They are sprinkled throughout the Indian subcontinent.


This goddess Parvati/Lalita, the goddess of power is the complete incarnation of Adi parashakti, has three main forms, which are known as Durga, goddess of strength and valour, and with Mahakali, goddess of destruction of the evil and Goddess Gowri, the goddess of goodness.


In the Satya Yuga, King Daksha(father of Sati) performed a yagna with a desire to take revenge on Lord Shiva. Daksha was angry because his daughter Dakshayani also known as Sati had married God Shiva against his wish. Daksha invited all the deities to the yagna except for Shiva and Shakti. The fact that she was not invited did not deter Shakti from attending the yagna. She had expressed her desire to attend to Shiva who had tried his best to dissuade her from going. Shiva eventually allowed her to go escorted by his followers.


Daksha insulted Shiva. Shakti was unable to bear her father's insults toward her husband, so Sati  jumped into the fire at the Yagna place. Enraged at the insult and the injury, Shiva destroyed Daksha's sacrifice, cut off Daksha's head, and later replaced it with that of a male goat as he restored him to life. Still immersed in grief, he picked up the remains of Sati's body, and danced the dance of destruction through the Univers (Tandav nritya). The other gods intervened to stop this dance, and the Vishnu 's weapon, or Sudarshana Chakra, cut through the corpse of Shakti. The various parts of the body fell at several spots all through the Indian subcontinent and formed sites which are known as Shakti Peethas today.
At all Shakti Peethas, the Goddess Shakti is accompanied by Lord Bhairava (a manifestation of Lord Shiva).