Tuįø·jÄ BhavÄnÄ« ā KuladevÄ« of Chhatrapati Shivaji
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Tuįø·jÄ BhavÄnÄ« ā "BhavÄnÄ« who descends quickly" ā is the fierce warrior-goddess of Tuljapur (Dharashiv district, Maharashtra). She is classed as one of the three-and-a-half Åakti pÄ«į¹has of Maharashtra (along with Mahalakshmi of Kolhapur, Renuka of Mahur, and the "half" pÄ«į¹ha of Saptashringi).
Tulja Bhavani is most famous as the kuladevÄ« of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630ā1680), founder of the Maratha empire. The foundational myth of the Maratha state holds that Bhavani appeared to Shivaji at Tuljapur in his youth and presented him with the BhavÄnÄ« Talwar ā the sword with which he would defeat the Adilshahi general Afzal Khan (1659) and found the HindavÄ« SvarÄjya. This sword is historical and was displayed in Shivaji's court; a Shivaji-Bhavani inscription remains at the temple.
The temple has been sacked multiple times ā by the Nizam of Hyderabad and earlier Bahmani rulers ā and rebuilt. The present sanctum dates from the 16thā17th centuries.
The goddess's icon is black stone, in the form of Mahiį¹£Äsura-MardinÄ«, slaying the buffalo demon, with an upraised sword ā iconographically recalling the Tuljapur-Shivaji connection.
