Famous Temples in India

Religious Significance

Lord Brahma performed a yajna (Vedic ritual of fire sacrifice) to please Goddess Shakti and Lord Shiva. Goddess Shakti emerged, separating from Lord Shiva and helped Lord Brahma in the creation of the universe. Lord Brahma decided to give Goddess Shakti back to Lord Shiva. Therefore, his son Daksha performed several yagnas to obtain goddess Shakti as his daughter in the form of Sati. It was then decided that Sati was brought into this world with the motive of getting married to Lord Shiva. However, due to Lord Shiva’s curse to Lord Brahma that his fifth head was cut off due to his lies to Shiva, Daksha started hating Lord Shiva and decided not to let Lord Shiva and Sati to get married. However, Devi Sati got attracted to Lord Shiva and finally they got married. This marriage only increased Daksha’s hatred towards Lord Shiva.

Daksha performed a yagna with a desire to take revenge on Lord Shiva near munimandala present Muramalla in Andhra Pradesh. Daksha invited all the deities to the yajna except Lord Shiva and Goddess Sati. The fact that she was not invited did not deter Sati from attending the yagna. She expressed her desire to attend the yagna to Shiva, who tried his best to dissuade her from going. Shiva eventually relented and Sati went to the yagna. Sati, being an uninvited guest, was not given any respect at the yagna. Furthermore, Daksha insulted Lord Shiva. Sati was unable to bear her husband’s insult and immolated herself. Enraged at the insult and the injury, Lord Shiva in Virabhadra form destroyed Daksha’s yagna, cut off Daksha’s head, and later replaced it with that of a male goat as he restored him to life. Despite that Lord Shiva kept raging with anger. Gods prayed Lord Vishnu to calm Lord Shiva. Still immersed in grief, Shiva picked up the remains of Sati’s body, and performed the Tandava Nratya, the celestial dance of destruction, across the entire universe. The other Gods requested Vishnu to intervene and to stop this destruction. Lord Vishnu used the Sudarshana Chakra and cut through Devi Sati’s corpse. The various pieces of the body fell at several spots all through the Indian subcontinent and formed sites which are known as Shakti Peethas today.

At all the Shakti Peethas, the Goddess Shakti is accompanied by her consort, Lord Bhairava (an incarnation of Lord Shiva). Goddess Shakti is an aspect of the Supreme Being Adi parashakti, the mother of the trimurti, the holy trinity in Hindu religion & scriptures. The history of Daksha yagna and Shakti’s self-immolation had immense significance in shaping the ancient Sanskrit literature and even had impact on the culture of India. It led to the development of the concept of Shakti Peethas and there by strengthening Shaktism. Enormous stories in Puranas & other Hindu religious books took the Daksha yagna as the reason for its origin. It is an important incident in Shaivism resulting in the emergence of Goddess Parvati in the place of Devi Shakti and making Lord Shiva a grihastashrami (house holder) leading to the origin of Ganapathy and Subrahmanya.