About Temple
Pradyumne Shrinkhala Devi is one of the eighteen Shaktipeeth. The word Shrinkhala has two meanings. The first one being, a Binding thread or Binding chain, second one is, a cloth which is used by the postnatal women to tie their abdomen tightly. According to the first meaning the goddess is in bounded form. Of-course, Jaganmata is bound only to the lord Shiva (Satya). She removes all bonds attached to her devotees. In the second meaning the goddess is in postnatal stage ( Mother of a newborn baby), in this form, she will see the entire universe as her child. The devotees imagine him/ her as a new born baby of Shrinkhala mata. A complete surrenderance (Saranagati) and Sishu bhava is required to worship her.
Sati Stomach has fallen in Shrinkhala Devi temple. This place is Known as shakthi Peethas. Rishyshringa Maharshi worshipped Srunkhala Mata here and got the complete blessings of her.
Shrinkala devi was supposed to be in West Bengal, hoogly/Hugly district, but as such, there is no temple either. A story tells that the sage Rishya Shringala brought Sri Srunkhala Devi to Shringeri in Karnataka.
Currently there is no temple at the place, a mine was built by Muslim invaders and currently the place is under the protection of the archaeological society of India, the doors were locked and when enquired the authorities said the entry was banned into the temple for security reasons, but there were clear cut and clearly distinctive elements on the main door of the building showing that it was once the main entrance to a Hindu temple, probably from Shrinkhala Devi. There were temple ruins in front of the mining.
Where is Sri Srunkhala Devi Shaktipeeth:
- Some people consider it as Shrinkhala Shaktipith present at Ganga sagar, in Adinath kshetra.
- Some people consider that Srunkhala mata is present near Sringeri of Karnataka, brought by Rishyashringa maharshi, on the order of Goddess
- Some people consider that the temple is in Chotilla, Gujarat.
But most people accept the first argument. In other words, Shrinkhala mata is in Pandua, near the district of Hugly, West Bengal.
Praddyumnam Sri Srunkhala Temple :
Another supportive evidence about the temple was obtained when we enquired local residents, Every year during magha maasa (Around February) a festival by name MELA TAALA of about 30 days duration is celebrated in the premises of the minar which is attended by local hindu and muslim communities in large numbers (More than 1 lakh). It is one of the important celebration of that place.
Another interesting fact is that near to Pandua there is a temple of Hanseswari mata which is regarded as Shakti peetha.
Taking into consideration all the above facts observed and collected it could be a possibility that it was the place where there was Shrinkhala devi temple.
Regarding the story of Rushya srunga it is said that he was grown up by his father from his child hood without exposure to the external world away from everyone except his father himself in the forest.This sage was pure at heart that he had a soul of an infant who does not get into the wordy joy. This made him a devotee of Shrinkhala devi.
There is also a contest in great epic of hindus ”The Ramayana” about this sage that he was the one who conducted the Putrakaameshti yaaga for king Dasaradha. King Romapada a friend of Dasradha adopted Santha devi who was the sister of Sri Rama. He requested this sage to conduct a yagna to get relief of very long famine which was relieved after the yagna.On the request of the king this sage married Santha devi and conducted the above metioned Yagna.
After some time this great sage as was a great devotee of Shrinkhala devi brought her in the sense his mother to Sringeri and distributed the energy around the Srunga parvatha and there he constructed temples to the deity. These places are also regarded as Shakti peethas.