Kurukshetra (Savitri)

The Kurukshetra Shakti Peetha stands in Kurukshetra — the field of dharma where the Mahabharata war was fought and where Krishna delivered the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. The site marks where Sati's ankles fell, and the presiding goddess is Savitri (also identified with Bhadrakali here). The Devi Bhadrakali temple is one of the ancient sacred sites of this historic city.

Kurukshetra is itself one of the most layered sacred landscapes in India — the Brahmasarovar (the sacred tank that may be the world's largest ritual bathing tank), the 48 kos Kurukshetra pilgrimage circuit, the solar eclipse bathing tradition, and the Gita Jayanti festival all converge here. The Shakti Peetha adds the Devi dimension to this predominantly dharma–war–Krishna landscape. Brahma is said to have performed a yajna (sacrifice) here, and Savitri (the goddess who saves the dead, associated with the Savitri–Satyavan legend) is an appropriate presiding deity in a landscape defined by death and dharma.

Sati's ankles fell at Kurukshetra. The ankle — the joint that enables movement, that bears the full weight of the body and allows forward progress — fell here in a land defined by the greatest war of righteousness. The goddess Savitri who arose has the same name as the queen who outwitted Yama (death) to save her husband Satyavan — both the Shakti Peetha goddess and the mythological queen share the quality of life-force confronting death. Bhadrakali, the auspicious dark one, is also associated with battle and the field of the dead.