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The 51 Shakti Peethas 11/51

Gandaki Shakti Peetha

Gandaki ChandiThe Shalagrama area, Gandaki Province (probable)

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Gandaki Shakti Peetha: The 51 Shakti Peethas 11/51, Gandaki Chandi, The Shalagrama area, Gandaki Province (probable)
In short

Gandaki is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas of the Pithanirnaya; by the text Sati’s cheek fell here, and the goddess is Gandaki Chandi and the Bhairava Chakrapani. The historian D. C. Sircar places it in the Shalagrama area near the source of the Gandaki river in Nepal; the text names no temple.

Deity
Gandaki Chandi
Tradition
Shakta
List
The 51 Shakti Peethas 11/51
Place
The Shalagrama area, towards the source of the Gandaki river
Region
Gandaki Province (probable)
Country
Nepal

Where the sources differ

  • The Devi Bhagavata (7.30) names the goddess at Shalagrama Mahadevi.
  • Neither the Nepal Tourism Board’s list of Shakti Peethas nor the local government website of the Muktinath area calls Muktinath a Shakti Peetha.
  • Some popular lists today link this pitha with a temple, but we found no official or scholarly source for it; so no temple and no map are given here.
  • The count of pithas depends on the text: the Pithanirnaya lists 51, some Bengali lists 52, the Devi Bhagavata (7.30) gives 108 places with names of the goddess, and the early Tantras name only four (Sircar).

Frequently asked questions

Which limb of Sati fell at the Gandaki Shakti Peetha?

By the Pithanirnaya, the cheek; the goddess is Gandaki Chandi and the Bhairava Chakrapani. The place is taken to be the Shalagrama area near the source of the Gandaki in Nepal.

Where is Gandaki Shakti Peetha?

Gandaki Shakti Peetha is in The Shalagrama area, towards the source of the Gandaki river, Gandaki Province (probable) (Nepal).

Which lists of tirthas include Gandaki Shakti Peetha?

The 51 Shakti Peethas (number 11 of 51 in the list).

Sources

  1. D. C. Sircar, The Śākta Pīṭhas (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 1948; Motilal Banarsidass, 1973): table of the Pithanirnaya pp. 35-37, note on this pitha p. 46 (archive.org)
  2. Vachaspatyam (Taranatha Tarkavachaspati), "pitha": the list of pithas quoted from the Tantrachudamani (Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries, sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de)
  3. Devi Bhagavata Purana 7.30 (the list of 108 pithas), English translation by Swami Vijnanananda (wisdomlib.org)
  4. Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np): Shakti Peeths and Shakti shrines of Nepal; Varagung Muktichhetra rural municipality (varagungmuktichhetramun.gov.np): ward 1

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