Shakambhari (Sambhar)

Shakambhari Shakti Peetha is located at Sambhar (near Sikar) in Rajasthan, near the Sambhar Salt Lake — India's largest inland saltwater lake. The site marks where Sati's right breast (or right side) fell. The goddess Shakambhari (she who bears or produces vegetables — shaka = greens/vegetables, ambhari = bearer) is a form of Devi as the sustainer of life through food and earth's abundance.

Shakambhari is referenced in the Devi Mahatmya (Markandeya Purana) as the form the Devi took when she sustained the universe through a drought by feeding all beings from her own body: vegetables and plants sprouted from her, and all creatures were nourished. The Shakambhari temple here receives enormous pilgrim traffic from Rajasthan and Punjab, especially during the Shakambhari Navratri mela (November–December). A second Shakambhari Shakti Peetha is also associated with Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The Sambhar Salt Lake setting adds a distinctive arid Rajasthani landscape to the pilgrimage.

Sati's right breast fell here — the breast as the symbol of nourishing motherhood, of the goddess who feeds all beings. Shakambhari, who 'bears the vegetables,' is the goddess of earth's fertility and the provider of all food. In the Devi Mahatmya, during a hundred-year drought when all life was perishing, the great goddess manifested as Shakambhari and sustained the universe from her own body — plants, fruits, and vegetables grew from and around her divine person, nourishing every creature.