499:26 This refers to the Pít́ha sthánas, 'fifty-one places,' where, according to the Tantras, the limbs of Śatí fell, when scattered by her husband Śiva, as he bore her dead body about, and tore it to pieces, after she had put an end to her existence at Daksha's sacrifice. This part of the legend seems to be an addition to the original fable made by the Tantras, as it is not in the Puráńas (see the story of Daksha's sacrifice). It bears some analogy to the Egyptian fable of Isis and Osiris. At the Pít́ha sthánas, however, of Jwálámukhí, Vindhyavásiní, Kálíghát, and others, temples are erected to the different forms of Deví or Śatí, not to the phallic emblem of Mahádeva, which, if present, is there as an accessory and embellishment, not as a principal, and the chief object of worship is a figure of the goddess; a circumstance in which there is an essential difference between the temples of Durgá and shrines of Osiris.

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Hinduism

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