Shakumbhari Devi Temple, Saharanpur

01The Devi of a hundred eyes

In the eleventh chapter of the Devi Mahatmya the Devi says that when no rain falls for a hundred years she will be born and look on the munis with a hundred eyes, as Shatakshi, and then sustain the world with life-giving vegetables grown from her body until the rains come, and be known as Shakambhari. Here the Devi is worshipped as Shakambhari with Bhima, Bhramari and Shatakshi beside her. The katha of the temple adds that she slew the asura Durgam here and so took the name Durga.

02Bhuradev first

The custom is to stop first at the shrine of Baba Bhuradev, the Devi’s guardian, about a kilometre before the temple, and only then go on to her; the pilgrimage is held incomplete otherwise. The road follows a seasonal riverbed, and in the monsoon the water can cut it. The Navratri fairs of Ashwin and Chaitra, and the Shakambhari Purnima of Paush, bring lakhs of pilgrims from Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh. Fresh vegetables and fruit are offered and given as prasad.