The History of Sati and Shiva:
The ShaktiPeethas are places of worship dedicated to the goddess Sati or Shakti. They are scattered throughout India.
Lord Brahma performed a yajna to please Goddess Shakti and Lord Shiva. Goddess Shakti emerged, separating from Shiva and helping Brahma in the creation of the universe. Brahma decided to return Shakti to Shiva. Therefore, his son Daksha performed several yagnas to obtain Shakti as his daughter in the form of Sati. Then it was decided that Sati was brought to this world by marrying Lord Shiva.
However, due to Lord Shiva’s curse on Brahma that his fifth head was cut off because of his lie to Shiva, Daksha began to hate Lord Shiva and decided not to let Lord Shiva and Sati marry. However, Sati was drawn to Shiva and eventually one day, Shiva and Sati got married. This marriage increased Daksha’s hatred of Lord Shiva.
Daksha performed a yagna with the desire to take revenge on Lord Shiva. Daksha invited all the deities to the yajna except Lord Shiva and Sati. The fact that she was not invited did not dissuade Sati from attending the Yagna. She expressed her desire to attend the yagna at Shiva, but Lord shiva tried his best to dissuade her from going there. Shiva finally gave in and Sati went to yagna. Sati, being an uninvited guest, received no respect in yagna. In addition, Daksha insulted Shiva. Sati could not bear her father’s insults to her husband, so she sacrificed herself in the fire.
Furious at the insult and the wound, Shiva in the avatar of Virabhadra destroyed the yagna and cut the head of Daksha. On the deity’s request, shiva replaced Daksha’s head with a goat’s head to bring him back to life. But his anger didn’t decrease. He lifted Devi Sati’s body on his shoulder and started Tandav.
The whole of the world became terrified and all the gods went to Lord Vishnu and sought his help. Vishnu went there and he was also not able to pacify Lord Shiva. He then ordered His Chakra and chakra started chopping the parts of the dead body of Sati one by one. The various parts of the body fell at several spots all through the Indian subcontinent and formed sites that are known as Shakti Peethas today.
Totally there are 51 Shakti Peetas where over 51 body parts of Devi Sati, fell after being broken apart by the Sudarshana Chakra of Lord Vishnu. at the location on which the respective temple is built.
Out of which 4 are called Adhi Shakti Peethas and 18 are called Maha Shakti Peetas is most famously known as AshtaDasha Shakthi Peethas.
