The 18 Maha Shakti Peethas are the eighteen sacred seats named in the Ashtadasha Shakti Peetha Stotram, a hymn pairing places with forms of the Goddess. The reference below follows that hymn’s order and identifies present-day temples where the sources support a working match. This grouping overlaps with broader Peetha traditions but is not treated as a universally fixed subset of one agreed list of 51.
An eighteen-seat devotional grouping
The hymn moves from Shankari in Lanka and Kamakshi at Kanchi to Saraswati in Kashmir. Its place names connect different regional traditions of Goddess worship. The Sanskrit Documents witness and the recitation printed by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams preserve the eighteen-pair sequence used here. The text circulates under Shankara attribution, but that attribution is not independently established by its placement in a modern collection.
The hymn names places and Goddesses without providing a complete table of body parts and Bhairavas. Later institutional tables can supply additional associations, and those tables themselves differ. The list therefore leaves unsupported fields absent rather than borrowing names from another enumeration. Where a local Bhairava is given, its institutional source is identified.
Maha Shakti Peethas map
The map shows reviewed locations from both working lists. Unresolved sites remain in the lists below. Points give regional orientation, not directions or visitor access.
Shakti Peetha (PN list) Maha Shakti Peetha (18 hymn); a shared site has one marker.
Regional overview with Natural Earth land and DataMeet’s India outline (CC0 composite), following the Survey of India depiction. Other political boundaries are not shown. Country names in the entries describe present-day locations.
The eighteen places and Goddesses
The sequence follows the hymn. Place names in Sanskrit are not automatically exact modern addresses. Shrinkhala’s Pradyumna identification and Saraswati’s Kashmir identification remain qualified; no point is supplied for an unresolved shrine. Temple-complex points are labeled as approximate orientation within the complex.
1. Shankari
Trincomalee, Eastern Province · Sri Lanka
- Goddess in this list
- Śāṅkarī
Shankari in this hymn and PN Lanka/Indrakshi preserve different associations; exact-site overlap is uncertain.
2. Kamakshi
Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu · India
- Goddess in this list
- Kāmākṣī
The PN Kanchi/Devagarbha entry has alternate identifications, including Bengal.
3. Shrinkhala
Pandua, West Bengal, working identification · India
- Goddess in this list
- Śṛṅkhalā
Pradyumna is commonly identified with Pandua in West Bengal; the exact historic shrine remains uncertain.
4. Chamundi
Chamundi Hill, Mysuru, Karnataka · India
- Goddess in this list
- Cāmuṇḍī
Not a named entry in the selected PN51 sequence.
5. Jogulamba
Alampur, Telangana · India
- Goddess in this list
- Jogulāmbā
Not a named entry in the selected PN51 sequence.
6. Bhramaramba
Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Bhramarāmbikā
PN Shrishaila/Srihatta and Shriparvata have different proposed identifications; overlap is uncertain.
7. Mahalakshmi
Kolhapur, Maharashtra · India
- Goddess in this list
- Mahālakṣmī
Kolhapur is one identification of PN Karavira; Sharkarara/Sindh is another.
8. Ekaveerika
Mahur, Maharashtra · India
- Goddess in this list
- Ekavīrikā
Associated with Renuka in the Mahur tradition. Not a named entry in the selected PN51 sequence.
9. Mahakali
Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Mahākālī
Harsiddhi is a current Ujjain identification. The PN Ujjayini/Ujani entry also has a Bengal reading.
10. Puruhutika
Pithapuram, Andhra Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Puruhūtikā
Not a named entry in the selected PN51 sequence.
11. Girija
Biraja Temple, Jajpur, Odisha · India
- Goddess in this list
- Girijā
Possible regional overlap with PN Viraja, with different Goddess names. Vimala at Puri remains distinct.
12. Manikyamba
Draksharamam, Andhra Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Māṇikyā
The PN Godavari river-region entry does not establish an exact-site match.
13. Kamaroopa / Kamakhya
Nilachal Hill, Guwahati, Assam · India
- Goddess in this list
- Kāmarūpā
- Shared site
- Also PN 17
Same Kamakhya site as PN17, with its own canonical Temple profile.
14. Madhaveshwari
Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Mādhaveśvarī
PN Prayaga/Lalita shares the city; the particular shrine identification varies.
15. Vaishnavi / Jwala
Jawalamukhi, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Vaiṣṇavī
- Shared site
- Also PN 5
Same working site as PN5; Goddess names and body associations differ across witnesses.
16. Mangalyagaurika
Gaya, Bihar · India
- Goddess in this list
- Māṅgalyagaurikā
Magadha occurs in an extended PN witness, outside the selected numbered 51 sequence.
17. Vishalakshi
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh · India
- Goddess in this list
- Viśālākṣī
- Bhairava (local source)
- Kālabhairava
- Shared site
- Also PN 23
Same working Vishalakshi shrine as PN23. The Kashi portal records Manikarni and Kalabhairava associations.
18. Saraswati
Kashmir; Sharada Peeth is a traditional identification
- Goddess in this list
- Sarasvatī
The hymn names Kashmir. Sharada Peeth is a traditional identification; the particular site and its modern administration require separate attention.
How this relates to the 51 Shakti Peethas
The 51 Shakti Peethas reference follows a specified Pithanirnaya witness. Kamakhya at Guwahati, Jwalamukhi and Vishalakshi at Varanasi connect the selected lists, although their names or associations are not identical in every witness. The shared markers represent one physical site, and both lists use the same Kamakhya profile.
Other overlaps require qualification. The hymn’s Bhramaramba at Srisailam must not be automatically equated with every Shrishaila/Srihatta or Shriparvata reading. Biraja at Jajpur and Vimala at Puri are distinct shrines. Shankari in the eighteen-seat hymn and Indrakshi in the PN Lanka entry preserve different associations; a shared island name alone does not resolve the exact site.
Following one temple across traditions
A temple’s history and living worship can be read alongside the different textual accounts that connect it with a wider sacred geography. The profiles bring together regional traditions, documented history and images, with each association attached to its own evidence. The Temples hub introduces the published profiles, and Resources provides selective reading across these traditions.
Body-part and Goddess–Bhairava associations belong to traditional sacred geography. They should be read alongside the particular text or shrine account that transmits them. They do not replace inscriptional, architectural or archaeological evidence for the history of a building.
Sources and method
D. C. Sircar, The Sakta Pithas (1948), numbered Pithanirnaya table, pp. 35–37, and geographical index provides the sequence and records variant readings and identifications. The Pithanirnaya transcription at Sanskrit Documents is a comparison witness, with different readings and an additional Magadha verse. The Ashtadasha Shakti Peetha Stotram supplies the eighteen-place hymn sequence, also printed in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Saptagiri, September 2025, p. 49.
Friederike Grenner, Sakti-Pithas: The Sacred Sites of the Goddess in India (2026) studies textual transmission and present-day worship through scholarship and fieldwork. Institutional accounts establish particular shrine traditions; geographic records establish orientation points. Neither a coordinate nor a modern temple claim resolves every textual identification. See Sources for DurgaShakti’s distinctions among textual, traditional and historical evidence.