Shakti Peetha Yatra

The route

What defines it

1. 01

   Sati’s body divided by the Sudarshana chakra

2. 02

   Each peetha has a Devi and a Bhairava

3. 03

   Counts of 4, 51, 52 and 108 in different texts

4. 04

   Peethas in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka

5. 05

   Kamakhya rebuilt 1565; Ambubachi 2025 drew over 8 lakh

01Daksha’s yajna

Daksha Prajapati held a great yajna and invited every deva except his son-in-law, Bhagwan Shiva. Sati went uninvited, heard her husband insulted, and gave up her body in the yogic fire. Shiva’s grief became the Virabhadra who destroyed the yajna, and then Shiva lifted Sati’s body and wandered the worlds with it. To end his sorrow, Bhagwan Vishnu cut the body with the Sudarshana chakra, and wherever a part fell a Shakti Peetha arose, each with its form of the Devi and a guardian Bhairava. Kamakhya in Assam keeps the yoni, Kalighat in Kolkata the toes of the right foot, Jwalamukhi in Himachal the tongue, burning still as natural flames from the rock.

02How many peethas

The texts count differently, and devotees do not quarrel over it. The Kalika Purana speaks of four principal peethas; the Tantra Chudamani’s Pitha Nirnaya gives the widely followed list of 51, matching the 51 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet; other lists give 52; and the Devi Bhagavata Purana names 108 seats of the Devi. The map of the 51 runs well beyond India’s present borders: Hinglaj in Balochistan, where Hindus still go on pilgrimage through the desert; Sugandha and Jessoreshwari in Bangladesh; Guhyeshwari beside Pashupatinath in Nepal; and Shankari at Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. In Maharashtra people speak of three and a half peethas: Kolhapur, Tuljapur, Mahur and the half at Vani.

03Kamakhya and the living peethas

Kamakhya on the Nilachal hill above the Brahmaputra is the greatest of the eastern peethas. The temple was ruined in the early sixteenth century, during wars with the Bengal sultans, and the Koch king Naranarayan rebuilt it in 1565 with his brother and general Chilarai. Each June the shrine shuts for the Ambubachi, when the Devi is held to be in her monthly course, and opens again on the fourth day. In 2025 Ambubachi ran from 22 to 26 June and drew more than 8 lakh pilgrims. Kalighat’s present temple was built in 1809. A family that wants to see many peethas usually goes by region: Bengal and Assam, the Himachal hills, or the Ujjain–Prayag–Kashi line.

In the texts

• Kalika Purana
• Tantra Chudamani (Pitha Nirnaya)
• Devi Bhagavata Purana

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