Danteshwari Temple Jagdalpur
Danteshwari Temple Jagdalpur. It is an ancient temple built by the kings of Bastar for inhabiting there family Goddess, Devi Danteshwari. Devi Danteshwari is the Goddess of entire Bastar division, equally worshipped by Hindus as well as tribals. This temple is located beside Bastar palace and near to Gole Bazar. It is worth seeing and pleasant to watch the temple during the famous Bustar Dusshera festival season, decorated in color lights and lambs, where the main traditional functions of the festivals are being carried out.
Danteshwari Temple is temple dedicated to Goddess Danteshwari, and is one of the 52 Shakti Peethas, shrines of Shakti, the divine feminine, spread across India. The temple built in the 14th century by the Chalukyas of the South, is situated in Dantewada, a town situated 80 km from Jagdalpur Tehsil, Chhattisgarh. Dantewada is named after the Goddess Danteshwari, the presiding deity of the earlier Kakatiya rulers. Traditionally she is the Kuldevi (family goddess) of Bastar state.
The temple is as according legends, the spot where the Daanth or Tooth of Sati fell, during the episode when all the Shakti shrines were created in the Satya Yuga.
Every year during Dusshera thousands of tribals from surrounding villages and jungles gather here to pay homage to the goddess, when her idol was taken out of that ancient Danteshwari temple and then taken around the city in an elaborate procession, now a popular tourist attraction part of the ‘Bastar Dussehra’ festival. There also a is tradition of lighting Jyoti Kalashas during Navaratris here.
