Katyayani (Vrindavan)

The Katyayani Shakti Peetha is identified with Vrindavan (or the broader Mathura–Vrindavan area) in Uttar Pradesh, where Sati's hair (kesh) fell. This Peetha is notable for its double significance: it is not only a Shakti Peetha in the Shaiva–Shakta tradition, but also the site where the gopis of Vrindavan performed the Katyayani vrata described in the Bhagavata Purana — worshipping the goddess Katyayani to obtain Krishna as their husband.

The Bhuteshwar area of Mathura is often identified as the exact location, with a notable Katyayani temple. In Vrindavan, a major Katyayani temple near Bhuteshwar also claims the Peetha. The Braj region, already one of the most intense pilgrimage landscapes in India — home to the Vaishnava tradition of Radha–Krishna — adds this Shakta dimension at Katyayani. The temple is surrounded by the Braj heritage of the Yamuna river, Govardhan hill, and the forest groves of Krishna's childhood.

Sati's hair — the kesh, a charged part of the body in Indian tradition (cutting hair is a form of vow; presenting hair to a deity is an offering) — fell in the Braj region. Katyayani is the sixth form of the Navadurga — the warrior goddess who emerged from the combined energies of all the gods to slay Mahishasura. In the Bhagavata Purana (10th Skandha), the gopis of Vrindavan bathed in the Yamuna in the winter month of Margashirsha, made images of Katyayani from sand on the bank, and worshipped her with flowers, requesting Krishna as their husband.