The 51 Shakti Peethas

Where this list comes from

This list is that of a short text called the "Pithanirnaya" (Mahapithanirupana). The manuscripts call it a section of the Tantrachudamani. At its very start the Goddess says that 51 pithas arose where the limbs of Sati fell after being cut by Vishnu’s discus, each with a goddess and a Bhairava.

The historian D. C. Sircar made a critical text of it from several manuscripts and printed versions in "The Śākta Pīṭhas" (1948; revised edition 1973) and commented on the identification of every pitha. The order, limbs, goddesses and Bhairavas in the table follow his table; the identifications follow his notes, with today’s state and country names. The same text is quoted from the Tantrachudamani under the word "pitha" in Taranatha Tarkavachaspati’s dictionary Vachaspatyam, which was used to check the list.

According to Sircar the text was composed, or became popular, in eastern India after the 17th-century Tantrasara and before the Pranatoshini Tantra of 1820. That is why so many of its pithas are in Bengal and today’s Bangladesh.

The story of Sati’s limbs

By tradition, after Sati gave up her body at Daksha’s sacrifice, Shiva wandered the earth carrying it. Later texts such as the Devi Bhagavata (7.30) and the Kalika Purana (chapter 18) tell that pithas arose wherever parts of Sati’s body fell. In one version the gods enter the body by yoga and remove it bit by bit; in another Vishnu cuts the body with arrows or with his discus (Sircar’s summary). The Devi Bhagavata has arrows, the Pithanirnaya the discus.

How to read the table

Several pithas now lie outside India: in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and Sri Lanka. Where the identification is disputed the row says "disputed"; where Sircar gives no place it says "unknown". Sircar named the districts of 1948; the table gives the present state or country of those places. Under each name are the variant readings and the pitha’s goddess and Bhairava.

Where the sources differ

• The count changed over time. According to Sircar’s study the early Tantras count four pithas; later lists grew to 7, 10, 18, 42, 50, 51 and finally 108.
• Four pithas: the Buddhist Hevajra Tantra names four: Jalandhara, Oddiyana (the Swat valley), Purnagiri and Kamarupa. The Kalika Purana (64.43-45) also names four: Odra, Jalashaila, Purna (Purnagiri) and Kamarupa.
• 50 pithas: the Jnanarnava Tantra lists 50. The Tantrasara also accepts 50, but makes 51 of them by splitting one name (Merugiri) in two (Sircar).
• 52 pithas: some parts of Bengal hold that there are 52. Sircar traces this to lists like the one in the Brihan-Nila Tantra and to confusion in the manuscripts; one of his manuscripts (G) also counts 52.
• 53 numbers: the text quoted in the Vachaspatyam numbers 53 (with Karnata and Magadha) and itself notes that two pithas are extra through a scribe’s error, but that it cannot say which. Sircar takes Karnata and Magadha as later additions.
• The original text: according to Sircar the original Pithanirnaya probably had 42 names, with ten pithas counted in Kamarupa; the last eight (Nalahati to Virata) were added later. Bharatchandra’s Annadamangal (1752) says "51" but names only 42. Sircar also thinks the original had only one of Varanasi and Kanyashrama.
• 108 pithas: the Devi Bhagavata (7.30) lists 108 pithas and as many goddesses; there Vishnu cuts Sati’s body with arrows. The Matsya Purana (chapter 13) has 108 names of the goddess with places, but does not call them pithas (Sircar).
• The names of the goddesses and Bhairavas differ between manuscripts; the table gives the first reading of Sircar’s table, with another in brackets.

Frequently asked questions