ABSTRACT
In the Shakti pithas, Shakti, as it were, sits on the petrified parts of Sati's corpse. However, those very body parts are themselves seen as the sources of this divine Shakti. The chapter argues that Sati's body, through its fragmentation, pluralizes itself and becomes boundless. It seems that it would be a mistake to present her body as the metaphor for the bounded territory called "India". The pilgrim sites created around the natural loci of sacrality containing Sati's members or their energy-essence are, unlike Daksha's kingdom, places encouraging a dialogue between nature and culture, the human and the non-human. The tantric Shiva, knows how to reveal the secret of the Devi-as-corpse, how to open it up to new possibilities, and hence is gifted with co-creatorship with the Devi. The immanent Shakti in the corpse is unpacked when Shiva sits in meditation on it, and the divine union becomes possible.
