Chhinnamasta Temple

The Chhinnamasta Temple at Rajrappa, in the Hazaribagh country of Jharkhand, is a Tantric pilgrimage centre dedicated to Chhinnamasta, the self-decapitated goddess counted among the ten Mahavidyas.

It sits on a hillock at the confluence of the Damodar and Bhairavi rivers beside the Rajrappa falls, a setting read by Tantric worshippers as an image of the reversed union described in the goddess's meditation verse.

The object of worship is a natural rock sheathed in an eight-metal alloy cover; local tribes venerated the spot long before it became a Chhinnamasta centre by the 1700s, and pilgrims offer kheer and animal sacrifice. The main temple is surrounded by smaller shrines to the other Mahavidyas and to Surya, Hanuman and Shiva, and draws devotees from Bihar, Bengal and the Nepal hills as well as tribals who immerse ashes in the Damodar below.