01Born in Nanda’s house
In the eleventh chapter of the Devi Mahatmya the Devi tells the devas what is to come: in the twenty-eighth age of Vaivasvata Manu she will be born in the house of Nandagopa, from the womb of Yashoda, and will dwell on the Vindhya mountain as Vindhyachala-nivasini. The Bhagavata Purana tells the night itself. Vasudeva carried the newborn Krishna to Gokul and brought Yashoda’s daughter back to the prison. When Kamsa seized the girl to dash her on a stone she slipped from his hands, rose into the sky in her eight-armed form and warned him that his killer was already born. Vindhyachal is where devotees hold she came to rest.
02The triangle and the lists
Pilgrims at Vindhyachal walk the trikona parikrama: Vindhyavasini as Mahalakshmi in the town, Ashtabhuja as Mahasaraswati on the hill about 8 km away, and Mahakali at the cave shrine of Kali Khoh. Navratri in Chaitra and Ashwin fills all three, and the Kajari songs of the rainy season are sung in her name. The Devi Bhagavata Purana, in its list of 108 seats of the Devi, names Vindhyavasini on the Vindhya. The Peetha Nirnaya Tantra’s list of 51 Shakti Peethas does not; there she is counted a siddha peetha, a seat where the Devi is present in her full form. Traditions differ, and the town counts her among the Shakti Peethas all the same.
The life of this place
- 1 August 2021The foundation stone of the Vindhya corridor is laid, and a ropeway between the Ashtabhuja and Kali Khoh hills opens.
Vindhyachal railway station on the Prayagraj–Mirzapur line is about a kilometre from the temple; Varanasi airport is about 70 km. Bathe at the ghat and go early in Navratri.
