Saptashrungi Mata Devi Temple Sapthashrungi Hills, Vani, Nashik, Maharashtra

Saptashrungi is a famous pilgrimage centre for the Hindus, and is approximately 40 minutes away from Nashik. Saptashrungi means Goddess of Seven Hills this place is often also referred to as three and a half shakti peethas of Maharashtra, it is in place called Vani. The Indian subcontinent has about 51 Shakti peethas, & Saptashrungi is one of them. It is in the ghats at an approximate height of 4,500 feet. This temple is a manifestation of Goddess Mahalakshmi of Kolhapur, Goddess Mahasaraswati of Tuljaur and Goddess Mahakali of Mahur.

One of the significance of this temple is that, Sati, Lord Shiva's wife had been to a Yagna at her father's place, though she was not invited for the reason that Sati had married Shiva going against him and out of love, since Sati was not invited, she felt insulted and out of frustration, she burnt herself in the agni of yagna, when this was known to Lord Shiva, he was in great grief and sorrow and he took Satis body and started to walk wound the universe, seeing this Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu decided to approach Lord Shiva to bring him in his actual form. Vishnu, with his sudarshan chakra cut Satis body into pieces, Satis body was cut into 51 pieces, and each of the body parts fell down at different places in the subcontinent and this is the place where Sati's right arm fell. Three and a half shakti peethas represent four temples at various places, namely; one at Kolhapur for Goddess Mahalakshmi, second at Tuljapur known as Tuljabhavani Temple, third at Mahur called as Renuka and fourth in Vani called as Saptashrungi . These four temples also manifest the parts of holy 'OM'. Saptashrungi is usually regarded as half shakti peetha resembling the smaller part of OM. It is a two storey sanctum with the Devi enshrined at the top, the image of the devis is carved on the base of sheer scarp rock face. The image of the goddess is about 8 feet and is saffron in color. Trishula, Sudarshana Chakra, Shankha, flames of fire, bow and arrow, vajra and ghanta, danda, akshmala, kamandalu, rays of sun god, sword and shield, parashu, wine cup, gada, lance, and pasha, these are all gifts given to the goddess to kill Mahishasura. The goddess is crowned and ornamented in a very lavish manner, her robes are changed every day. To encompass various facilities in the premises, the temple has recently gone renovations.There are 500 steps that have now been cut in the previous rocky slope to allow the devotees and visitors to take the darshan of goddess in a systematic manner. The most important festival of Saptashrungi is Chairtotsav, the estival starts at Ram Navmi and ends at the Chaitra Poornima which is the biggest day of the festival, the festival is specifically attended by childless women seeking blessings for children. Around 2,50,000 attend the festival and in the last three days, about 1 Million of them gather to celebrate the festival. Apart from this, in the month of Ashwin, Shukla Paksha Dashami, is yet another festival after Navaratri and Dussera that is celebrated very fondly

APART FROM force majeure INCIDENTS, ALL SATURDAYS, ALL SUNDAYS, CHRISTMAS-NEW YEAR WEEK (24TH DECEMBER TO 2ND JANUARY), 14TH & 15TH JANUARY, NATIONAL HOLIDAYS (26TH JANUARY, 14TH APRIL, 15TH AUGUST, 2ND OCTOBER), 9 DAYS NAVARATRI, DIWALI WEEK,

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