Tarapith at Rampurhat – Jai Ma Tara!

While in Nabadwip last March I had a desire to visit Sri Khanda. My gurubhai, Raghunath Da decided to arrange a day trip in which we could visit many places. We went to Katwa, Jajigram, Sri Khanda, Ekacakra, and on the way home we stopped at Rampurhat in Birbhum district which is where Tarapith is located. There Tara Ma is situated in her mandir on the banks of the Dvarka river. The temple was originally built by Vasistha, but due to the passage of time it was lost. A merchant named Joybroto was instructed by Tara Ma in a dream to build a shrine for her. This Ma Tara has two hands, is garlanded by snakes and is wearing sacred threads. Shiva is lying in her lap and sucking her left breast. The story goes that in order to alleviate the pain and buring from drinking poison to save the earth, Tara is feeding him her breast milk. Tarapith is a maha-shakti pith. There are 52 such shaktipiths in India.

The story of the shaktipiths goes as follows…Daksa was going to perform a sacrifice and invited everyone except Shiva and his wife Sati. Sati was the daughter of Daksa and he was angry at Shiva because he didn’t like that his daughter married a “yogi.” She had expressed her desire to attend to Shiva who had tried his best to dissuade her from going. Shiva eventually allowed her to go escorted by his ganas. But Sati, being an uninvited guest, was not given any respect. Furthermore, Daksha insulted Shiva. Sati was unable to bear her father’s insults toward her husband, so she committed suicide by jumping into the yagna fire. When Shiva heard about the death of his wife he became very distraught and immediately went there. He placed the body of Sati on his shoulder and in great anger he began the Pralaya Tandava, the dance of destruction. To save the worlds from destruction the demi-gods appealed to Vishnu for help. Understanding the situation, Vishnu called upon His Sudarshan Cakra and cut the body of Sati into 52 pieces. This caused Shiva to settle down and thus the worlds were saved. The various pieces of her body fell at several spots all through India and formed sites which are known as shaktipithas.

Before Sati was given permission by Shiva to attend the sacrifice her and Shiva had some strong difference of opinion. She was furious that he forbade her to go and Shiva wanted to get up and leave her to her anger, but in whatever direction he turned Sati would appear before him standing in peculiar and strange forms, and thus all the ten directions were enveloped by ten surprisingly novel manifestations. These ten forms are known as Dasa Mahavidya. Tara is one of these manifestations of Maha-Kali, Maha-shakti representing, among other things, ten super-psychological sentiments (rasa).

Darshan of Tara Ma was a very powerful experience as one would expect because a shaktipith is a spiritually rich and energizing location. Tara is the deity of karuna, compassion…the rescuer. When helpless jivas of Kali yuga are drowned in an ocean of worldly misery, she extends her hands to them.

I wasn’t allowed to take any photos in the Mandir and unfortunately didn’t think to buy any from the street vendors so I am posting images that I found online that most looked like her the way I remember her. There was a well-known unorthodox tantric guru of Tarapith named Bamakhepa. You can find an article on his life at the following address. www.om-guru.com/html/saints/vama.html

Tara Ma

Side view of Tara Ma

Tarapith Mandir