Jwalamukhi

(“flame mouth”) Presiding deity of the
Jwalamukhi shrine in the state of
Himachal Pradesh, and one of the nine
Shiwalik goddesses. According to the site’s
mythic charter, Jwalamukhi is one of the
Shakti Pithas, a network of sites sacred to
the goddess that spreads throughout the
Indian subcontinent. Each Shakti Pitha
marks the site where a body part of the dismembered goddess Sati fell to earth, taking form there as a different goddess; in the
case of Jwalamukhi the body part was Sati’s
tongue. The human tongue is an extremely powerful part of the body—connected
with speech, eating, and sex—and thus
Jwalamukhi is considered a very powerful
shrine. The cave containing the shrine has
a small vent of natural gas, which has been
lit for as long as people can remember. This
flame is believed to be a self-manifested
(svayambhu) form of the Goddess, here in
the form of her tongue. For further information see David R. Kinsley, Hindu
Goddesses, 1986; and Kathleen Erndl,
Victory To The Mother, 1993. See also pitha.
324
Jupiter
325
Jyotirlinga