Shri Shakti Peeth: A spiritual Power Centre

Standard Hindu (Sanskrit) scriptures list only a few, not more than a dozen in all. But Hindus across the country, esp. South Indians worship hundreds of goddesses. i.e. Not that everyone worships every goddess. But every village in the India has got a grama-devata (village-goddess). So there are nearly as many goddesses in the country as there are villages. Sometimes, a goddess of the same name is worshiped at many places across the state. So you have got a few ‘pan-India goddesses’ apart from the village goddesses. Strangely, the South does not have common gods and goddesses worshiped across the entire region.

It is not known why there are no male gods in the South. But I suspect that they too existed in ancient times but came to be merged and identified with Aryan gods in the latter course of history. For example : Lord Varaaha Narasimha Swamy at Simhachalam (Visakhapatnam) is also called ‘Appanna’. But this name we don’t find in any Hindu text. Much the same way, Lord Narasimha Swamy at Ahobilam is called Obulayya by the locals. The town has apparently been named ‘Ahobilam’ after this name. It looks like a Sanskritised Telugu name, as the word ‘Ahobilam’ has no convincing etymology or meaning in Sanskrit.

Similarly, Lord Siva at Narasaraopet is also popularly called by the names Kotappa and Ellamandha. Nowhere do we find these names in our scriptures. Lord Siva at Srisailam is known as ‘Cheviti Mallanna’ (Deaf god). So devotees shout their prayers loudly to Him so as to be audible. I guess, the native Telugu name ‘Mallanna’ was later Sanskritised into ‘Mallikarjuna’ after the Telugus converted into Hinduism. Kanaka Durga of Vijayawada is also known as Bedzamma (????????/ ?????????). But such a name is not to be found anywhere in Sanskrit texts. King Rajaraja Narendra, the friend and patron of the first Telugu poet, Nannaya, had named his daughter Bedzamma after the Goddess. (He originally hailed from Bezwada, but later set up his capital at Rajamahendravaram). However the princess also got a Sanskrit name when she was married.

I guess that these were the names of the gods and goddesses who were originally worshiped in those places before they were Aryanized and assimilated in the Hindu fold. Now, back to our female goddesses : How come so many female goddesses proliferated in the South, esp. Teluguland? What could be the reason? Were all these just figments of the imagination of our ancestors?

They perhaps came to be worshiped as goddesses on account of some sacrifice they had made. It is not unusual in the villages for women to sacrifice themselves for the common good of their village, like rains or protection from a malignant contagion etc. Some make the sacrifice for their family. In ancient times, some villages used to be composed of a row or two of houses inhabited by the people who descended from just one single family-line. In some other cases, a woman who sacrificed for the sake of keeping her chastity (????????????/ ?????????????) came to be worshiped as a goddess, like Tirupathamma.

So probably all these goddesses could be humans once upon a time. Sadly no one has bothered to record their biographies and the circumstances that culminated in their deification. But it does not matter much to either us or them. (whether we deem them to be Shakti or some other form of divinity). It is high time someone got down to an extensive research on the true antecedents of these goddesses and piece together the history of our South Indian Hinduism. Shakti Peethas have real body parts of Goddess Sati in any form.

All Shakti Peethas are body parts of Devi Sati. In starting of Satya Yuga Prajapati Daksha(son of God Brahmma) organised the great Yagnya. Prajapati Daksha sent invitation to God Brahmma, God Vishnu, Indra with all Deva but he didn’t send invitation to God Shiva. So, God Shiva didn’t attend the great Yagnya of Prajapati Daksha. Devi Sati wanted to attend his father’s great Yagnya. God Shiva stopped Devi Sati. But,Devi Sati disapproval her husband God Shiva’s wish. Devi Sati gone to attend the great Yagnya organised by her father Prajapati Daksha. Devi Sati attended the great Yagnya of his father (Prajapati Daksha). God Shiva was not invited in the great Yagnya therefore Prajapati Daksha abused God Shiva. Devi Sati was unable to bear the insult of his husband God Shiva. Therefore Devi Sati committed suicide. When God Shiva came to know that his beloved wife Devi Sati had committed suicide, he taken a horrible form in anger. God Shiva lifted the dead body of Devi Sati on his shoulders and flying in the Space with anger and sorrow till long time.

To control the anger of God Shiva, God Vishnu by his divine weapon Sudarshana Chakra cut Devi Sati's Body into 51 Parts. Those 51 Parts of Devi Sati's Body fall on the Earth & became 51 Sakthi Peethas. Just as Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is without form, it’s Force of Life, Shakti, is formless as well. When the power of Shakti takes physical form it manifests as the Great Goddesses (Maha Devis); Saraswati, Lakshmi and Uma, while Goddesses such as Kali and Durga embody other more specific aspects of Shaktic power.

A foundational belief in Hinduism is that Shakti (female) and Purusha (male) energy are interconnected and interdependent; two halves of the complete divine whole. Uma is Shiva's dynamic creative energy and the force of life which connects all beings and the means of their moksha, or spiritual release. In mythology, Uma is believed to be the incarnation of Shiva’s first wife, Sati, who immolated herself when Shiva was insulted by her father. Lost in mourning, Shiva had withdrawn into extreme asceticism, causing problems with the world, so the gods caused Uma to be born to lure Shiva into the active, sensual realm of husband and father. Uma civilizes him, therefore making him accessible to mortal worship. Uma is Shiva's dynamic creative energy, the Force of Life connecting all beings and the means of their spiritual release (moksha).

Shiva acting alone may perform acts of cosmic significance and protect the world from evil, but it is only in the company of Uma that Shiva’s grace is bestowed upon an individual soul. In iconography, the two are rarely depicted without each other. For example, when Shiva manifests as Nataraja, his power is considered incomplete unless a figure of Uma stands nearby. A striking feature of many Chola Bronzes depicting The Divine Couple is their sensual intimacy. In the depiction of their marriage they tenderly hold hands and in others he will often be shown fondling her breast or gently turning her face to his. There are also many written references to their lovemaking in the sacred texts or the hymns of the Nayanmar poet saints. In Hinduism it is believed the ecstasy of sacred union of worshippers with their deity is closely related to the bliss of sexual union with one’s beloved.

Uma’s identity hasn’t always been defined by her relationship with her husband or sons, however. She was born a princess, daughter of Himavat, the personification of the Himalaya mountains, and the apsara (angel), Menā, and grew up to become an ascetic, demon-slayer, roles which morphed into those of Durga, the ultimate demon slayer, and Kali the fierce protector. As Vedic patriarchal attitudes toward Goddesses prevailed, Uma lost a great deal of her earlier status and independence Balance was restored, however, when assertive, dynamic Chola queens such as Sembiyan restored Uma’s stature as a Goddess in her own right.

When standing alone, Uma is the ideal of feminine beauty and wears the clothing and adornment of a queen, including the sacred thread of an ascetic – a throwback to her origins as a Himalayan renunciate Goddess. She stands in tribhangasana, the threefold stance, with her hip to one side, her left arm hanging gracefully at her hip in the elegant lolahasta. Her right hand holds a (missing) lotus, symbolizing purity, in kataka mudra. Sitting alone she may be Shiva Gami (Beloved of Shiva), Boga Shakti (Pleasure of Shakti) or Somaskanda, a family group with Shiva and her second son, Murugan, and on occasion, Ganesha.

As mother to sons, Ganesha and Murugan she is Boga Shakti and shown seated in lalitasana, the pose of royal ease. In both these roles, she embodies the ideal balance of purity and sensuality and invariably is portrayed as a slender, sensuous woman of great beauty. Chamunda devi sanctuary, one of the shakti peeth in Dhauladhar range, had a rough history. Until 1991, the sanctuary was in vestiges, having been signed by lightning and savage flames, just as an absence of support and upkeep. Notwithstanding, in 1992, limited, Mr. P D Saini, embraced the sole obligation of its reclamation and turned out enthusiastically for a very long time, with the assistance of a gathering of fans to take the sanctuary back to its previous brilliance. The man actually works for the sanctuary today in spite of the upkeep obligations having been taken over by the public authority.

The goddess to whom the sanctuary is committed, Goddess Chamunda is one of the types of the Goddess Durga and one of the seven Matrikas. The Matrika goddesses are proclaimed as the heroes who shield great from the powers of malevolence and are said to have been made by the Gods to battle evil spirits like Nirrita and Andhaka. The Goddess' name is obtained from the beasts Chanda and Munda, two beasts whose identity is said to have slaughtered from exactly the same mountain the Chamunda Devi sanctuary is based on. The goddess is offered both creature and plant contributions, and being a goddess of ancestral inception, is at times offered meat and alcohol in customs.

This sanctuary is one of the Shakti Peeth sanctuaries, set up many years prior. It is considered as quite possibly the most generally critical sanctuaries in India, one of only a handful of exceptionally well known sanctuaries devoted to ancestral goddesses. The legend behind the development of the sanctuary is as per the following. 400 years prior, the King of the zone where the sanctuary lay implored asked the goddess for her authorization to move the sanctuary from the thick, uneven timberlands to a spot more available by individuals. The Goddess, who showed up in a fantasy to the Brahmin, allowed her authorization and requested that he burrow a specific region; after finding an antiquated symbol here, they continued to fabricate a sanctuary around the icon so individuals could revere her.

The King and the Brahmin followed her order and found the symbol, however ran over another issue; the icon was excessively hefty for the men to lift. Stressed, the Brahmin indeed petitioned the god. She appeared to him again and castigated him for dealing with the icon like it was some other stone. She advised him to get up promptly in the first part of the day, scrub down and wear new garments. Subsequent to doing this, he went to the icon and supplicated devotedly. After doing this, he ought to have the option to lift the sculpture easily. The Brahmin did the Goddess' guidelines and effectively lifted the symbol, taking into consideration the development of the sanctuary that stands today.

Who protects the Shakti Peetha? The sanctuary is developed in the Tantric style that the majority of the Shakti Peeth sanctuaries are made in. The sanctuary fuses pictures from folklore and legend that encompass the goddess. The icon of the goddess is flanked by sculptures of Lord Bhairav and Lord Hanuman, two divine beings who are supposed to be the gatekeepers of the furious goddess. As indicated by a legend, Chamunda was revered as the central divinity Rudra Chamunda in the fight between the evil spirit Jalandhara for which the Maitrika goddesses were made to win. Proper to the uneven district of the sanctuary, the design of the structure is formed to fit the prerequisites of its geology. Situated on the banks of the stream Baner, the sanctuary appreciates a seat in the lap of nature, encircled by mountain reaches, valleys, and beautiful timberland view. Jay Devi Mataki