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Concept
Shakti Pitha
Summary
The Shakti Pithas or the Shakti Peethas (शक्ति पीठ, , seat of Shakti) are significant shrines and pilgrimage destinations in Shaktism, the goddess-centric denomination in Hinduism. The shrines are dedicated to various forms of Adi Shakti. Various Puranas such as Srimad Devi Bhagavatam state the existence of varying number of 51, 52, 64 and 108 Shakti Pithas of which 18 are named as Astadasha Maha (major) in medieval Hindu texts.
Various legends explain how the Shakti Pithas came into existence. The most popular is based on the story of the death of the goddess Sati. Out of grief and sorrow, Shiva carried Sati's body, reminiscing about their moments as a couple, and roamed around the universe with it. Vishnu had cut her body into 51 body parts, using his Sudarshana Chakra, which fell on earth to become sacred sites where all the people can pay homage to the goddess. To complete this massively long task, Shiva took the form of Bhairava.
Most of these historic places of goddess worship are in India, but there are seven in Bangladesh, three in Pakistan, three in Nepal, and one each in Tibet, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. There were many legends in ancient and modern sources that document this evidence. A consensus view on the number and location of the precise sites where goddess Sati's corpse fell is lacking, although certain sites are more well-regarded than others.
The Brahmanda Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas mentions 64 Shakti Pithas of the goddess Parvati in the Bharat or Greater India including present-day India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, some parts of Southern Tibet in China and parts of southern Pakistan. Another text which gives a listing of these shrines, is the Shakti Pitha Stotram, written by Adi Shankara, the 9th-century Hindu philosopher.
According to the manuscript Mahapithapurana (c. 1690–1720 CE), there are 52 such places. Among them, 23 are located in the Bengal region, 14 of these are located in what is now West Bengal, India, 1 in Baster (Chhattisgarh), while 7 are in what is now Bangladesh.
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