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The 51 Shakti Peethas 30/51

Shona Shakti Peetha

Narmada (Shona)Uncertain: on the Son river or on the Narmada, Uncertain

Also known as: Variant reading: Narmada

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Shona Shakti Peetha: The 51 Shakti Peethas 30/51, Narmada (Shona), Uncertain: on the Son river or on the Narmada, Uncertain
In short

Shona is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas of the Pithanirnaya; by the text Sati’s hip fell here, and the goddess is Narmada (Shona) and the Bhairava Bhadrasena. According to the historian D. C. Sircar it is not settled whether the pitha is on the Son river or on the Narmada.

Deity
Narmada (Shona)
Tradition
Shakta
List
The 51 Shakti Peethas 30/51
Place
Uncertain: on the Son river or on the Narmada
State
Uncertain
Country
India

Where the sources differ

  • The text has the hip falling in two places: at the previous pitha, Kalamadhava, and here.
  • The Devi Bhagavata (7.30) names the goddess at Amarakantaka Chandika and at the Shona confluence Subhadra.
  • Both the Narmada and the Son rise near Amarkantak, but the Amarkantak pages of Anuppur district and Madhya Pradesh Tourism name no Shakti Peetha there.
  • 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 Shona Shakti Peetha?

By the Pithanirnaya, the hip; the goddess is Narmada (Shona) and the Bhairava Bhadrasena. Whether the pitha is on the Son or the Narmada is not settled.

Where is Shona Shakti Peetha?

Shona Shakti Peetha is in Uncertain: on the Son river or on the Narmada, Uncertain.

Which lists of tirthas include Shona Shakti Peetha?

The 51 Shakti Peethas (number 30 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. 53 (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. Anuppur district (anuppur.nic.in): Narmada Udgam, Sonmuda; Madhya Pradesh Tourism (mptourism.com): Amarkantak

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