Ekaveerika Devi Shakti peeth

Ekaveerika Devi

(Rare photo)

Ekaveerika Devi Temple

(8th Shakti peetha )

As per Sri Adi Shankarachrya's shaktipeethas shlok the 8th Shakti peethas is
' Mahurye Ekaveerika'

The full shloka is

Lankayam Shankari devi, Kamakshi Kanchika pure /Pradyumne Shrinkhala devi, Chamunda Krouncha pattane //Alampure Jogulamba, Sri shaile Bhramarambika /Kolha pure Maha lakshmi, Mahurye Ekaveerika //Ujjainyam Maha kali, Peethikayam Puruhutika /Odhyane Girija devi, Manikya Daksha vatike //Hari kshetre Kama rupi, Prayage Madhaveshwari /Jwalayam Vishnavi devi, Gaya Mangalya gourika //Varanasyam Vishalakshi, Kashmire tu Saraswati /Ashtadasha Shakti peethani, Yoginamapi durlabham //Sayamkale pathennityam, Sarva shatri vinashanam /Sarva roga haram divyam, Sarva sampatkaram shubham //

Ekaveerika devi temple is in Mahur , Maharashtra. The deity here is called Ekaveerika mata. The temple is in Yavatmal district in Maharashtra. It is 50 km from Kinwat and 126 km from Nanded. Nagpur is 210 km by road from Mahur. Sati's Right shoulder has fallen here.

The back ground of falling of body parts of Sati Devi is as below:

There was a great king called Daksha Prajapati who was son of Lord Brahma. He had 27 daughters and Sati devi is one among them. Sati devi got married to Lord Shiva. When Dashka entered the arena of a yaga performed by Agni, every one except Lord Shiva stood up as a mark of respect. Daksha felt insulted by Lord Shiva's behaviour. Later when Daksha conducted a yaga him self , he did not invite his daughter and his son in law.Though Sati felt bad because of the non invitation, she wanted to attend the yaga against the wish of Lord Shiva.When Sati, attended the yaga no body has cared for her and she felt insulted by the actions of her sisters and parents. Then when her father started abusing her husband she could not control her feelings and sacrified herself at the place of yagna by creating agni from earth with her right thumb of her foot.Knowing this Lord Shiva removed one bunch of Jhatha from his head and hit it on the earth. From that Lord Veerabhadra has born and rushed to yaga spot and killed Daksha by cutting his head. Later Shiva went to the spot and taken the body of sati from the fire and started dancing with it. The world was terrorized from this Tandava Nritya and to stop this Nritya, Vishnu used his Sudarshan chakra and completely cut the Sati's body in to pieces. These body parts have fallen at various places in India and Srilanka. Where ever these parts have fallen the places are called Shaktipeethas. There are 18 such places and they are called Ashta (8) Dasa(10) Shakti peethas.

The nearest Air port : Sonegaon(Nagpur).

Rail way station : Kinwat.

Mahur is famous for Renuka Devi temple and very few people are knowing about Ekaveerika devi temple and mostly they call Renuka devi temple as shakti peeth. We find more rush at Renuka devi temple than Ekaveerika mata temple.

Renuka Devi temple

Renuka Mata, Mahur

It is said that Ekaveerika Devi is the elder sister of Renukadevi.Renuka devi temple is 800 years old.

Prasad being grinded

Here pan patta and supari are grinded as paste and offered as prasad. Other temples which we can see here are Parashuram Temple, Jamadgni temple and Anasuya temple.

Anasuya temple

The Anasuya devi temple is on another sikhar/hill. Anasuya devi is the mother of Lord Dattatreyaa. We can get shared autos from Renukadevi temple to this place.

The board at Ekaveerika mata temple

Ekaveerika Devi temple is 8 km from Renuka devi temple on Nanded high way and 300M from the main road. Very few people visit this temple and we could not find even poojari in the temple. Opposite to the temple there is one Gomata samadhi. The story about this samadhi no body could tell us.

Gomatha samadhi
(opposite to temple)

Mahur assumes prominence as the birth place of Lord Dattatreya.This temple is very old and we find lot of langoors in this temple.

Dattatreya Temple , Mahur
( the author with friends)

DATTATREYA IN LINGA SHAPE

Datta temple is on another hill and harati is given at 5 Pm every day and abhishek is done on every thursday.

60 km from Mahur there is one pracheen shiva temple at Manpur which is 850 years old.

Shiva Temple , Manpur

Shiv linga, Manpur

We find Kala Bhirava temple here. It is said that each shaktipeeth must be have a Kala bhirava temple and there is no Kala bhirave temple in Ekaveerika devi complex.

20 km from Yavatmal at Kalam ,Chinta mani Ganesh temple is there. It is one of the eight Ganesh temples in Vidarbha and it is the only temple where deity faces south.

Chinta mani Ganesh,Kalam

The temple is 20 feet below the ground level and it is said that every 12 years the temple is submersed in water comes out of the well.

Vinayaka,at Kalam

(at main temple entry)

One can visit "Unkeshwar" (50 km from Mahur; 15 km from Kinwat), which has natural sources of hot water. This sulphur rich water is supposed to have medicinal value.

For other shakti peethas please visit my blog at the following URL

http://shaktipeethas18or51or108.blogspot.com/

http://jyotirlingasinindia.blogspot.com/

http://12jyothirlingas.blogspot.com/2011/11/dwadasa-jyothirlingas.html