The Shakti Peethas
The seats of the Goddess across the subcontinent: the myth of Sati's fallen body, the network of Devi shrines, and the fierce temples that mark them.
The Shakti Peethas are the temples that mark where the body of Sati is said to have fallen, carried across the subcontinent by a grieving Shiva and dismembered as he went. The lists vary. Fifty-one is the most common count; some traditions give fifty-two, others one hundred and eight.
As with the Jyotirlingas, the effect is to map the land as a single sacred body, this time the Goddess’s. Kamakhya in Assam, where the yoni is said to have fallen, is the most striking of them, and its annual closure during the Goddess’s menstruation is unlike anything else in Indian religion.
These pages set out what the Peethas are, why the lists disagree, and what is known about the major sites. The myth is given as myth and the temple histories as history.