Place · goddess shrine · India
Harasiddhi Devī, Ujjain
The Shakta shrine at Ujjain adjoining the Mahakaleshwar jyotirlinga, counted in some lists as the Pitha of Sati's elbow. The Chaumukhi diya tower in the courtyard — lit on nine nights of Navaratri with 1,011 lamps — is unique in the subcontinent. The legendary emperor Vikramaditya of Ujjain is said to have made Harasiddhi his family deity and performed the twelve head-offering tantra for her boon. The temple walls are inlaid with medallions showing the fifty-one Pithas and the Sanskrit alphabet together — a condensed cosmography that reads as a map and an alphabet at once.
- Periods
- Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Pithanirnaya/Tantracudamani; popular guides
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.177, 75.768
Worth knowing
Harsiddhi Temple is famous for its enormous deepa-stambhas, or lamp towers. During major festivals, hundreds of lamps are lit across them simultaneously. Ujjain itself is unusual for being associated with multiple sacred traditions at once, including the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga, Shakti worship and the Kumbh Mela.
Connections (1)
- Site withinUjjain / Avantikā
Harasiddhi Devī, Ujjain lies within Ujjain / Avantikā — the two sites sit about 2 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Harasiddhi Devī, Ujjain is one of the specific sites that give Ujjain / Avantikā its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.
On these journeys
Sources
D.C. Sircar, The Śākta Pīṭhas (1948, rev. 1973), and the pīṭha lists of the Devī Bhāgavata and the Pīṭhanirṇaya.
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