Ujjayini Shakti Peeth (Mangal Chandi, Ujani)

The story

The Shakti Peeth story tells that after the sorrowful events at King Daksha's yagya, Shiv ji wandered in grief with Devi Sati's body, and Vishnu ji's Sudarshan chakra divided it; here, the lists say, her elbow fell.

The place is woven into the stories of Maa Mangal Chandi that are sung across Bengal. In the 16th-century Chandimangal of the poet Mukundaram, Ujani is the fortified town of King Vikramkesari and the home of the merchant Dhanapati, who sailed across the sea to far lands. When he did not return for a long time, his son Shrimanta set out by boat to find him. Ujani is also remembered as the father's home of Behula, the devoted heroine of the Manasamangal. In those days the merchant boats of this river country travelled far and wide. Later the village became the birthplace of the poet Kumud Ranjan Mallick and of Lochan Das, who wrote the Chaitanya Mangal.