Tarapith

Tarapith is a Tantric pilgrimage village on the Dwarka river in Birbhum district of Bengal, famed for its temple of Tara and the cremation ground beside it. The shrine is recognised as both a Shakti pitha and a Siddha pitha: Puranic works hold that the third eye of Sati fell here, making it one of the fifty-one seats of the goddess.

Tradition makes the sage Vashistha its first worshipper. A legend in the Rudrayamala relates how he travelled beyond the Himalayas to learn the left-handed kaula rites, after which Tara appeared as a mother suckling Shiva and turned into the stone image venerated in the sanctum.

At the adjoining cremation ground, ascetics seek enlightenment amid funeral pyres on the model of Vashistha's austerities. The temple remains one of the three great Shakta centres of Bengal alongside Kalighat and Nabadwip.