Naina Devi

Presiding deity of the Naina Devi temple
in the Shiwalik Hills in the state of
Himachal Pradesh, and one of the nine
Shiwalik goddesses. Naina Devi’s temple is located on a mountaintop close to
the border of Punjab. It is nine miles
from Anandpur Sahib, a famous Sikh
place of pilgrimage, and about one mile
from Nangal village. The greatest pilgrimage traffic occurs during festivals
held on the eighth day in each half of the
lunar month of Shravan, and also during the first nine days of the month of
Ashvin, when the Navaratri festival
takes place.
According to the temple’s charter
myth, Naina Devi is one of the Shakti
Pithas, a network of sites sacred to the
Goddess which spreads throughout the
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;
Naina Devi was Sati’s eyes (naina). As
with many of the other Shiwalik goddesses, the images in Naina Devi’s temple are self-manifested (svayambhu
images) outcrops of stone. In a different
version of the myth, the images were
discovered by a herdsman named
Naina, who heeded the command of
the Goddess to build a temple for her.
For further information see Kathleen
Erndl, Victory to the Mother, 1993. See
also pitha.
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Naina Devi