Jogadya (Yugadya) Shakti Peeth, Kshirgram

The story

According to the Shakti Peeth tradition, after King Daksha's yagya Shiv ji wandered in grief carrying the body of Devi Sati. Vishnu ji's Sudarshan chakra then divided the body, and wherever a part or an ornament fell, a Shakti Peeth arose. The big toe of her right foot is believed to have fallen here. Kshirgram also has a story from the Ramayan as told in Bengal. In the Bengali Ramayan of Krittivas, Mahiravan carried Shri Ram and Lakshman ji away to Patal, where he worshipped a fierce form of the Devi. Hanuman ji, as a tiny fly, told the Devi who the prisoners were, and she showed a way to free them; Shri Ram then defeated Mahiravan. Bharatkosh adds that on the way back Hanuman ji brought this Devi with him and set her up at Kshirgram, where she became one with the Mother already worshipped there. Local tradition says Raja Haridutta of Kshirgram later saw the Devi in a dream and had a stone murti made. When the old murti was lost, the sculptor Nabin Bhaskar of Dainhat carved a new one with help from the Maharaja of Bardhaman. Villagers say that some years ago, when the tank was cleaned, the old murti was found in the water, and a small separate temple was built for it, where visitors can have darshan.