Historical Period17c CE
Pre-medieval; Mughal reconstruction 17th c.
📷 Navaneethpp · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Deities
Jwālāmukhī Devī
Jwālāmukhī — the goddess who IS a flame
Jwālāmukhī — the goddess who IS a flame
Jwālāmukhī ("mouth of flames") is a unique Shakti Pīṭha where natural gas flames emerge from 9 separate rock fissures — the goddess is the FLAME itself. One of the 51 Shakti Pīṭhas (Sati's tongue). Emperor Akbar tried to extinguish the flames with redirected canal water — the flames burned underwater. He offered a gold umbrella which turned to copper on placing. The 9 flames are named for the 9 forms of Durga: "Mah"ākāli, Annapūrṇā, Chaṇḍī, Hiṅglāj, Vindhyavāsinī, Mahālakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Ambikā, Añjanī. No idol — only flames.
Daily aarati at dawn and dusk; abhisheka with water/milk/turmeric; kumkum offering; red hibiscus; oil lamp. For Tantric or non-Brahmin shrines: goat-sacrifice (traditional; increasingly symbolic pumpkin-breaking).
Hinduism's goddess-traditions are vast and diverse — 51 Shakti Pīṭhas, 10 Mahāvidyās, 9 Navadurga, 8 Ashta Matrika, hundreds of regional forms. Each is a distinct face of the one supreme Mahā-Devī.
