Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
This temple of Katyayani is one of the famous shakti-pithas of the Shakta sampradaya that primarily worships goddess Duga in her various manifestations. There are as many as fifty-two pithas scattered around India where the various body parts or ornaments of the goddess Sati fell to earth after she was dismembered by the chakra of Lord Vishnu. This is said to be the spot in Vrindavana where ringlets of her hair (katya) fell upon the earth.
There are various legends found in the Puranas that reveal how the Shakti-pithas came into existence. The most popular is based on the story regarding the tragic death of goddess Sati. Out of grief and lamentation, Sati’s husband Lord Shiva, while remembering their moments of nuptial bliss together; roamed around the universe carrying Satis dead body in his arms. As Lord Vishnu had cut Satis dead body into fifty-two parts using his sudarshana-chakra, the various parts of Satis body ultimately fell upon the earth at numerous places to become pithams or holy places where the goddess could be worshiped. In another legend it recounts the time when all the demigods gave their celestial weapons (astras) to the goddess in her form as Maha-Kali, in order that she could kill the powerful demon Raktabija and his vast army. Some versions say that the demon was Daruka.. After destroying the demon she could not be stopped in her blood-lust and her furious uncontrollable rampage posed a threat to all life in the universe, including the demigods themselves; it was left to Lord Vishnu to finally cut her to pieces using His weapon known as the sudarshana-chakra, after which Kali’s various body parts and ornaments fell to earth.
The worship of the goddess in Hinduism is generally associated with the Tantric tradition of the Matrikas as well as the tradition of the ten Mahavidyas and falls under the broader umbrella of Shaktism. Other famous pithams of the Shakta sampradaya include: Jagannath Temple, Puri, Odisha (Feet). Berhampur, Odisha (Breast) Guwahati, Assam (Yoni) Kalighata, Kolkata, West Bengal (Mouth). Manikarnika Ghata, Varanasi (Earring). Baidyanath, Jharkhand (Heart). Dantewada, Chhattisgarh (Tooth). Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh (Right eye). Kanchi, Tamil Nadu (Naval). It should be noted that this particular temple is not the place where the gopis worshiped goddess Katyayani which was at Chira Ghata near Nanda Ghata some thirty kilometers north of Vrindavana.
