On this page
At the foot of the Himalaya, Daksha and the sages of Sanaka’s line chanted the maya-bija mantra (maya’s seed-syllable) for a hundred thousand years. So fierce an austerity pleased the supreme power, Bhagavati, and she showed herself to them in visible form. Her four hands bore the noose, the goad, the gesture of boon-giving, and the gesture that banishes fear; three eyes opened in her face; and her form was filled through with being, consciousness, and bliss. That mother of the worlds, brimming with compassion, spoke in a voice sweet as a koel’s: blessed sages, ask for a boon. The sages prayed that the bodies of Shankara and Vishnu be made whole once more and their former powers returned to them, for the two gods had slighted their own powers, Gauri and Lakshmi, and by that offense had fallen dim and deranged.
Then Daksha folded his hands and pleaded: Mother, take birth in my line, so that my life may reach its purpose; and speak from your own lips the secret of how you are invoked, how you are meditated upon, and where you dwell. Bhagavati assured him that the smallest measure of her grace would restore both gods to health, and that her two powers, Gauri and Lakshmi, would be born in Daksha’s house and in the Ocean of Milk and would come again to those same gods. The maya-bija is her foremost mantra, she said, and the entire universe is her dwelling place; and with these words the goddess who reigns in Manidvipa vanished from sight.
Some time passed, and in Daksha’s palace a radiance appeared, charged with immense power. The three worlds broke into festival. The gods rained flowers in their joy and sounded their kettledrums, the rivers ran clear and bright, and the sun swelled with a lovely light; blessing lay over everything. Because she was truth itself and the very form of Brahman, Daksha gave the girl the name Sati and gave her to Shiva, for in an earlier time she had already been Shiva’s own power.
Durvasa’s Garland and Daksha’s Malice
Yet inside this very blessing the seed of ruin had already been sown. It happened this way. One day the rishi Durvasa came near Bhagavati in her form as Jambunadeshwari and began to chant the maya-bija mantra there. The goddess was pleased, and she gave the sage the divine garland from her own throat, a garland over which bees, drunk on its pollen, still hovered, and she gave it as prasad. Durvasa bowed his head, received it, and set off along the paths of the sky. On his way he came to the place where Sati’s father Daksha sat, and there he bowed at Sati’s feet. Daksha asked, lord, whose is this unearthly garland; such a garland is rarely granted to men upon the earth, so how did you come by it. The sage, his voice trembling with love, answered that it was Bhagavati’s incomparable prasad. Then Daksha asked for the garland, and the sage, thinking that nothing in the three worlds should be withheld from a devotee of the goddess, placed it in his hands.
Daksha bowed his head and took the garland, but he set it down in the very bedchamber where he and his wife shared their handsome bed. In the night, intoxicated by the garland’s fragrance, Daksha gave himself to animal appetite. This dishonoring of Bhagavati’s prasad became the root of his fall; by the force of that sin, Daksha, once a source of well-being, turned a mind full of malice against Shankara and the goddess Sati.
Sati’s Dharma and Shiva’s Grief
As the fruit of that very offense, and to make plain the dharma of a faithful wife, Sati reduced to ashes in the fire of yoga the same body she had received from Daksha; and that same light then appeared in the house of the Himalaya. Sati’s self-immolation seemed to bring the dissolution of the ages down upon the three worlds. From the fire of Shiva’s wrath rose Virabhadra, and taking Bhadrakali and the ganas with him, he set out to destroy the world. Then Brahma and the other gods took refuge with Shankara. Even after everything had been ruined, Shiva, that treasury of compassion, granted them safety and brought Daksha Prajapati back to life by fixing the head of a goat upon him.
Yet Shiva’s grief found no peace. He came to the place of the sacrifice and broke into deep lament. Seeing Sati’s luminous body burning in the fire, crying out, Sati, oh Sati, he lifted that body onto his shoulder and, his mind unmoored, wandered from land to land.
Vishnu’s Arrows and the Birth of the Pithas
Shiva in this state left Brahma and the other gods deeply troubled. Then Vishnu swiftly raised his bow and, with his arrows, cut away the limbs of Sati. Wherever a limb fell, there Lord Shankara appeared, taking on many forms. On every patch of ground where a single limb of the goddess came to rest, a single Shakti-pitha rose into being. In other traditions Vishnu cuts Sati’s body into fifty-one pieces with the Sudarshana discus, but in this Devi Bhagavata he severs the limbs with bow and arrow, and the number of pithas is given as one hundred and eight.
After this Shiva told the gods that for those who worship Bhagavati at these places with great devotion, nothing at all would remain out of reach, since at these places the supreme mother, Paramba herself, dwells forever within her own limbs; and whoever performs the disciplined recitation here will have his mantra, above all the maya-bija mantra, come surely to fulfillment. Having said this much, Shiva, restless with longing for Sati, began to pass his time at those very places, absorbed in chanting, meditation, and samadhi.
The One Hundred Eight Pithas and Their Goddesses
When Janamejaya asked, Vyasa gave the names of those siddhapithas and of the goddesses who reign in each, names by which merely to hear them a person is freed of sin. In Varanasi she is Vishalakshi, and in Naimisharanya Lingadharini. In Prayaga her name is Lalita, on Mount Gandhamadana Kamuki, in the southern Manasarovar Kumuda, and in the north Vishvakama. In Hastinapura she is Jayanti, in Kanyakubja Gauri, in Pushkara Puruhuta, and in Kedara Sanmargadayini. In Gokarna she is called Bhadrakarnika, in Sthaneshwara Bhavani, in Shrishaila Madhavi, and in Gaya Mangala. In the region of Purushottama she is Vimala, in Kamalalaya Kamala, in Kalanjara Kali, and in Chitrakuta Sita.
On Vindhyachala she is Vindhyavasini, in Karavira Mahalakshmi, in Mahakala Maheshwari, and in Amarakantaka Chandika. In the region of Prabhasa she is Pushkaravati, on the seashore Paravara, in Dwarka Rukmini, in Vrindavan Radha, and in Mathura Devaki. On Mount Jalandhara she is Vishvamukhi, at Kishkindha Tara, in the Kashmir country Medha, and on Himadri Bhima. In the same way she is Indrani in the realm of the gods, Saraswati in the mouths of Brahma, Prabha in the orb of the sun, Vaishnavi among the Matrikas, Arundhati among faithful wives, and Tilottama among the apsaras; and as Brahmakala she pervades the heart of every embodied being, one and the same Bhagavati throughout.
Vyasa explained that these are the one hundred and eight siddhapithas and just as many supreme goddesses. Some among them are pithas truly bound to the limbs of Sati, and some are other great places of the earth, described here as the occasion allowed. Whoever recalls or hears these one hundred and eight excellent names is freed of every sin and reaches the highest abode of Bhagavati. One should travel to these holy places in the proper manner, offer the shraddha rites to one’s ancestors, perform the special worship of Bhagavati, and ask the mother of the world for forgiveness again and again. Even the Chandalas and others who live in those regions are said to be forms of the goddess, so one should accept no gift from anyone there. Whoever travels to these siddhapithas with a glad heart secures for his ancestors a dwelling in Brahmaloka for a thousand kalpas, and in the end he himself attains the highest knowledge and is freed from the ocean of worldly existence.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)