Shri Pitambara Peeth, Datia

01Swami ji’s peeth

The founder never gave out his name or his birthplace; he came to Datia as a young sannyasi, sat in sadhana beside the old Vankhandeshwar Shiva temple, and in the 1920s installed Bagalamukhi, called Pitambara, the one who wears yellow. Later he added a shrine to Dhumavati, the widow among the Mahavidyas, rare in all of Bharat. He gathered a Sanskrit library and wrote on mantra and sadhana. The Vankhandeshwar linga, much older, is held by the ashram to go back to the Mahabharata age.

02Yellow on Saturdays

Devotees dress in yellow, offer yellow flowers and sweets, and come in the largest numbers on Saturdays. Darshan of Bagalamukhi is through a small window; the Devi is not shown in full. Dhumavati’s shrine opens only briefly, at the morning and evening aarti, and married women traditionally do not take her darshan. People in court cases and those facing hostile rivals make vows here, and havans run in the yajnashala most days.

The life of this place