Cite
MLA
“Maa Tara Tarini.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/maa-tara-tarini/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Maa Tara Tarini. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/maa-tara-tarini/
Two stone faces of the Devis, side by side in the sanctum, adorned with gold and silver; before them two brass heads, the chalanti pratima, which are carried in procession.
01Two faces on Kumari hill
Kumari hill rises above the Rushikulya river near Purushottampur in Ganjam district, about twenty-eight kilometres from Brahmapur, and the river curls around its foot on its way to the sea. On the top stands the temple of the twin Devis, Tara and Tarini. In the sanctum there are no full figures, only two stone faces of the Devis side by side, dressed in gold and silver, with two brass heads before them, the chalanti pratima, the moving images that leave the temple in procession. Odisha counts Tara Tarini among its four great Adi Shakti Peethas, with Vimala at Puri, Kamakhya in Assam and Dakshina Kalika in Bengal.
02Where Sati’s breasts fell
When Vishnu’s discus divided the body of Mata Sati as Shiva carried it after Daksha’s yajna, her breasts, the temple holds, fell on Kumari hill, which is why it is called a Stana Peetha, the seat of the Mother who nurses. The shrine lay half-forgotten in the forest for a long time. The temple’s tradition says that in the seventeenth century the Devis appeared in a dream to a devotee named Basu Praharaj and showed him the place, and he restored their worship and built a temple. The shrine was greatly enlarged in the classical Odia style from 2005, and the renewed shrine was dedicated in May 2022.
03Chaitra Tuesdays and the first haircut
The great time is the Chaitra Yatra, held on the Tuesdays of the month of Chaitra, in March and April. Families from all over south Odisha bring their young children to have their first haircut here, the hair being offered to the Devis; hundreds of barbers sit at the foot of the hill through the month, and the temple sells khichdi bhoga by the plate. A smaller mela falls on every Sankranti. Below the hill, about four kilometres away, is Jaugada, the Mauryan headquarters of south Kalinga, where one of Ashoka’s rock edicts was found, and the ports of old Kalinga lay not far down the coast; it is remembered that ships once sailed up the Rushikulya so that their crews could pay their respects to the Devis before going to sea.
In the texts
- Shakti Peetha traditions of Odisha
- Tara Tarini temple records (Tara Tarini Development Board)
