Origin of the Divine Feminine Temples, The Shakti Peeth

Shaktipeeth are the Divine Feminine temples spread across the Asian Continent, dedicated to Goddess Sati. Whenever someone wishes to invoke creativity, fertility and abundance in their lives, they are advised to visit these temples. While they house a lot of positivity and feminine energy in them, the origin story of Shaktipeeth is all about Shakti’s love and devotion to her masculine counterpart, Shiv. 

Story Of Adi-Shakti

According to many Hindu puranas, Brahma’s son Daksha Prajapati and his wife Prasuti wanted to be blessed with Adi-Shakti (the ancient Divine Feminine) as their daughter. The couple prayed for many years to the Goddess and she was finally appeased and agreed to being born as their daughter. They were blessed with the beautiful Dakshyani, daughter of Daksha who was also called as Sati, the one who is the truth.

Sati grew up to be a sharp-witted, bright girl who was fascinated by the stories of Shiva, the nomadic Hindu God who resided in mountains. Daksha was not happy with her affections towards Shiva as he did not consider him respectable. The King did not like the ascetic lifestyle of Mahadev and considered him beneath his station. Sati knew this wasn’t true and wished to marry the God of all Gods. Daksha tried his best to dissuade the young girl but to no avail. She finally married Shiva after much protest from her whole clan. 

Daksha decided to take matter in his own hands and arranged a yagna with the purpose to show Sati and her husband their (lowly) place in society. He invited everyone to the yagna except his daughter and her husband, Shiva. Sati was hurt when she came to know of this, yet she insisted the couple go for the yagna. Shiva tried to reason with her but ultimately gave in to her pleas. When they reached the venue, Sati and Shiva were treated like unwanted guests.

Shiva maintained his composure but Sati was infuriated by this treatment meted out to her Divine husband. She demanded Daksh to apologize to his son-in-law. The arrogant King refused and went on to insult Shiva about his abode, his dressing sense and his lack of wealth. Sati could take it no longer and cursed Daksha, that he will die at the hands of Shiva. She then jumped into the fire of the yagna and killed herself. Her lifeless body burned with fury shocking everyone into inaction. 

Shiva’s Grief

Shiva was stunned and ran to the yagna-kund, enraged at the loss of his Divine Feminine counterpart. In anguish he picked up the burning body of Sati and danced in the world creating havoc and destruction through his grief. This dance was known as the Rudra-Tandav. This led to the creation of two demi-gods, Rudra (also called as Veerbhadra) and Bhadrakali, who emerged from his dreadlocks.

Shiva ordered them to destroy the yagna and kill Daksha. Daksha head was slayed and thrown into the burning fire but seeing this havoc the attendees were scared. They requested Shiva to have mercy and revive Daksha. Shiva relented and brought the King back to life by placing the lost head by that of a goat on his shoulders. 

A mournful Shiva then started roaming the Universe with the corpse of his now dead wife. This created a Universe-wide depression threatening the stability of the three worlds. This is where Vishnu was requested to step in. Vishnu sent out his Sudarshan chakra to cut up the body of Sati in pieces while still in Shiva’s arms.

Shiva kept roaming and the Sudarshan chakra followed him hacking the corpse. The body finally ceased to exist after being cut into 51 pieces (some scriptures say 108 as well). The various places where these body parts fell was deemed a shaktipeeth, each having mystical powers for the betterment of the human kind and earth kind. 

Also Read: Makar Sankranti: When Sun Visits Saturns Zodiac Sign

Frequently Asked Questions FAQs

For interesting Astrological Facts and Videos, follow us on Instagram and read your daily horoscope.