Hari Om
Shree Matre Namah !
Tripura Sundari Temple, one of the 51 Sakthi Preethas, is situated in the ancient Udaipur, about 55 km from Agartala,Tripura, believed to be one of the powerful and sacred Hindu shrines in North East part of the country. The temple which is well known as Matabari, crowns in a small hillock and is served by the traditional red-robed priests who traditionally, minister to the mother goddess Tripura Sundari.
Legend and History of the Shakti Peethas
Daksha, the son of Lord Brahma had 27 daughters including Sati (form of Goddess Shakti) who was married to Lord Shiva.
Daksha, entered his arena one day to attend a yagna performed by Agni and found that everyone except Lord Shiva stood up as a gesture of respect and was very angry. Later on when Daksha conducted a yagna himself, he didn’t invite his daughter Sati or son in law.
Despite the lack of invitation, Sati still chose to attend the yagna to be with her father and sister who completely ignored her and started misspeaking about Shiva in front of her which made her feel very hurt and disgraced.
She scarified herself at the place of yagna by creating agni from earth with her right thumb of her foot. Lord Shiva, when he came to know what had happened, removed one bunch of Jhatha from his head and hit it on the earth. From that portion, Lord Veerabhadra was born and rushed to the yagna spot and killed Daksha by cutting his head off.
Lord Shiva went to the yagna himself and started dancing with Sati’s body removing it from the fire. This Tandava Nritya, scared everyone and instilled fear. The people were terrorised and Lord Vishnu had to take matters into his hands to control the situation. Lord Vishnu used his Sudarshana Chakra to cut Sati’s body into pieces which fell in various places in India and Srilanka.
The places where the parts of the body fell, came to be known as the powerful 51 Shakti Peethas.
Tripura Sundari Temple
The Temple has a square type sanctum of the typical Bengali hut. It is believed that Sati’s right foot fell here during Lord Shivji’s Nataraj Dance.
Legend has it that king Dhanyamanikya who ruled Tripura in the later part of the 15th century, had a revelation one night in his dream, ordering him to install Goddess Tripurasundari in the temple that stood on a hilltop near the town of Udaipur. The temple was already dedicated to Lord Vishnu, and the king was confounded initially, unable to decide how a temple dedicated to Vishnu could have an idol of the consort of Shiva. However, the oracle repeated the divine injunction to the king once again the following night, thereafter the ruler decided to obey the ethereal command, notwithstanding the fact that Vishnu and Shiva typified two different sects of religious following. Thus, the Tripura Sundari temple came into being in around the year 1501, and is now about 500 years old. This legend is recounted as one of the example of how solidarity between the two sub groups, the Vaishnava and Shaiva sects, was known and fostered even during medieval times.
The Tripura Sundari Temple shows the idol of goddess Kali which is made of reddish black kastti pathar (stone), the idol of goddess Kali is about 5 feet. The temple also shows another idol of the goddess known as Chotti Maa (Smaller size Kali) which is about 2 feet.
The Eastern side of the Tripura Sundari Temple shows a famous Kalyan Sagar Lake which houses fishes and huge sized tortoises, which adds extra glimpse to the Tripura Sundari Temple. Devotees feed these fishes with Muri (puffed rice) and biscuits.
The temple follows daily rituals and other routine formalities. During Diwali devotees from all over the country visit this temple.
Every Shakthi devotee would like to have Dharshan of Maa Tripurasundari at this temple at least once in their lifetime.
Om Aim Hreem Shreem Sri Lalita Tripurasundari Padukam Poojayami Namah
GF’ Blessings.
