Place · Bhavani goddess temple · India
Tuljāpur Bhavānī
Also known as Osmanabad, Tuljapur, Tuljapur, Osmanabad
The hilltop goddess temple at Tuljapur in Osmanabad district, Maharashtra, 45 kilometres from Solapur — the kuladevi (clan deity) of the Bhosale royal house of Shivaji and one of the three-and-a-half Shakta seats of Maharashtra. The goddess Tulja Bhavani is traditionally the goddess from whom Shivaji received the sword with which he founded the Maratha state — the sword was brought to Pratapgad for the 1659 encounter with Afzal Khan and then kept in the Satara Peshwa treasury. The temple is a 12th-century Yadava foundation with later Nizam Shahi and Maratha additions; the Hemadpanthi black-stone construction and the three annual Nidradevi festivals (ritual sleep of the goddess) are distinctive to Tuljapur.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 18.010, 76.130
Connections (1)
- Companion in the same setBhimakali, Kinnaur
Bhīmākālī at Sarahan and Bhavānī at Tuljāpur are both state goddesses whose rulers took their authority from them — Bushahr in the Sutlej valley and the Marathas in the Deccan. Human sacrifice is recorded at Sarahan into the nineteenth century, which is the sharper end of what a kingdom's tutelary goddess could require.
Sources
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India — Wikipedia
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