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Journal of
Tour sm
& Development |
n.
º
39
|
2022
|
[
291
- 300 ]
DOI:
e-ISSN 2182-1453
Evolution of Shakti Peetham for religious,
mythological and dark tourism in Indian
sub-continent
DEBASISH BATABYAL * [debasishbatabyal@gmail.com]
DILLIP KUMAR DAS ** [das.dillipkumar@gmail.com]
SUBIR KUMAR SEN *** [subirkumarsen@gmail.com]
ABHISEK PORYA **** [poryaraja1997@gmail.com]
HARSANGLIAN HALAM ***** [harsang27@gmail.com]
PRATIM CHATTERJEE ****** [chatterjeepratim29@gmail.com]
Abstract |
Given the growing importance of age old cultural and mythological tourism with many other
related distinctive niches, the purpose of this paper is to contextualize the impacts of Shakti Peetham
on such tourism practices in South Asia. This mythological context of Shakti Peetham has several im-
portance in age old cultural tourism to contemporaneous sustainable pilgrimages with issues associated
with many niches such as dark tourism, animal sacrice and typical Tantric rituals in Hinduism etc.
This paper discusses about the concentration of those places in and to the Eastern India of South Asia
and focusing on upcoming mythological tourism, dark and tantra tourism potentialities with a circuit
development approach through Vehicle Routing System (VRS) for sustainable pilgrimage.
Keywords |
Mythological, dark and tantra tourism, religious tourism, Shakti Peetham tourist circuit,
VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem).
*
Assistant Professor
(Senior Scale) at the Amity Institute of Travel & Tourism, Amity University, Kolkata, India.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0191-9804.
**
Associate Professor
&
HOD
at the Department of Tourism Management,University of Burdwan, India.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6032-9348
***
Associate Professor
at the Department of Commerce, Tripura University, India. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9535-
1687.
****
Junior Research Fellow
at the Dept. of Tourism & Hospitality Management, Jamia, Millia Islamia (Central Univer-
sity), New Delhi, India. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4551-8968
*****
Assistant Professor
, Department of Commerce, Government Degree College, Dharmanagar, Tripura, India.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9111-9319.
******
Assistant Professor
in Hospitality, Amity University Kolkata, Kolkata, India. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4136-
8157
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1. Introduction
Hinduism is an Indian religion and considered
to be the oldest extant religion in the world by
many scholars. Maximum number of Hindus are
living in Indian Sub-continent. The Hindus prac-
tice Sanatan Dharma or way of life. Today, with
about 900 million followers, Hinduism is the third-
largest religion behind Christianity and Islam. Ha-
ving been the oldest extant religion, it has a di-
verse system of thought marked by a range of phi-
losophies, shared concepts, cosmological system,
pilgrim sites and shared textual resources. Hin-
duism does not prescribe more, rather describing,
pluralistic, diverse in nature.
Mythologically, Shakti Peethams are believed
to have come into existence when Mother god-
dess departed Parvati or Shakti's body was mu-
tilated into 51 pieces and fell on earth at va-
rious places. These 51 holy places are known
as Shakti Peethams. Apart from India, some of
these Shakti Peethams are also situated in Pakis-
tan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Tibet (in China).
This feminine divinity is a powerful entity in Hin-
duism with paradoxical nature of creation and
destruction. It is exuberated in the concept of
the ten Mahavidya or ten great wisdoms called
Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari (Shodoshi), Bhuva-
neshvari, Tripura Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, Dhu-
mavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala res-
pectively (Chakravarti, 1956; R.K.Mission, Cal-
cutta, 1953; R.K.Mission, Calcutta 1956).
With due course of time, dierent non-Vedic
oerings or tribal ritualsgot mixed and modied
rituals or prayers came into being e.g. Durga
Puja,Kali Puja etc. (Urban, 2019). This goddess
Kali or Durga and their dierent consorts (Bhai-
rava) are worshipped in entire South Asian region
including some places in Tibet, China as mentio-
ned in the spatial map (gure 1).
Figure 1 |
19 Shakti Peetham based on 8th Century CE Skanda Purana
According to Hindu mythology, these are the
main places with specic rituals for invoking Shakti
and exhibits the scope for one of the most power-
ful pilgrim tourism circuits for several thousand ye-
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ars. Interestingly and co-incidentally, such was the
acceptability and popularity of this mythology as-
sociated with Shakti incarnation that many more
new Shakti Peethams came into being in the sub-
continent with due course of time. During 10
th
and
11
th
century, the popularity reached at the apex of
its level with new literature and manuscripts, and
the tendency was to incorporate and promote new
places of the same religious importance. Pilgrim
routes, temples, shrines, mausoleums etc. have
immense heritage values. The growing worth of
this heritage in the renegotiation and dissemina-
tion of a nation's identity is considerate of many
scholars and academicians. It is also found that In-
dia is consistently represented as an ethnically di-
verse nation in which Hinduism preceded and pre-
vailed over all other ethnicities/religions (Bandyo-
padhyayet.al., 2008).
The gure 2 in the study, exhibits such
trend with a unique two-fold concentration impor-
tant for religious tourism circuit with Shakti Pe-
ethams. This mythological and religious exube-
rance in South Asia chronologically found to be
sub-continental and thereafter almost regional.
Figure 2 |
78 Shakti Peetham exhibited through 10th and 11th Century CE Shiva Purana and Kalika Purana
This incidental concentration, of course, be-
gets a new opportunity for Shakti-circuit develop-
ment in the eastern part of erstwhile India.
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2. Objectives
Shakti Peethams are of immense religious, cul-
tural and heritage values in Indian sub-continent.
It is possible to reorient and promote religious tou-
rism, mythological tourism, dark and tantra tou-
rism and many such interesting niches. Therefore,
international tourists can also be equally interes-
ted in special interest and niche tourism exhibi-
ted through the Shakti circuits. The objective of
the study is to nd out location-wise concentra-
tion of the maximum number of Shakti Peethams
and thereafter to explore Shakti Peetham circuits
on the basis of surface distance for future pilgri-
mages. Another objective is to explore all possible
niches of related tourism in the region for sustai-
nable pilgrimages and development without animal
cruelty, killings and, in certain cases, superstitions.
3. Data collection and chronological exube-
rance
This study follows a descriptive research based
on a chronology of advent and inception of anci-
ent scriptures associated with the mythology and
history of establishment of Shakti Peetham and
its popularity. A unique mythology-religion relati-
onship with future trans-boundary and regional re-
ligious tourism circuit development scope has been
explored for several other types and forms of tou-
rism in recent future. Explored circuits are on the
basis of surface distance from one point to another
irrespective of interstate and trans-national boun-
daries.
3.1. Software Section
Based on availability of Data found in the Pu-
rana rstly Microsoft oce excel is used to make
the table and ltering the Peetham. Google Earth
Pro, 7.3.3.7786 (64-bit) has been used for marking
the Peetham and making a KML (Keyhole Markup
Language) le. Then another software ArcMap
10.5 which is a Geographical Information System
(GIS) software which allows handling and analy-
zing of spatial data or Geographical information
through visualizing of various geographical graphs
and statistics in Layer format is used extensively
for Map design.
3.2. Map Layout Design
As discussed in the Software section, after suc-
cessful verication and marking the Peetham in
Google Earth Pro the placemarks has been con-
verted and saved in KML le. Then using ArcMap
10.5 this KML le is converted into Layer le for-
mat. Then Data frame is created and shape le
of South Asian country is added and those point
is marked for nally making the Map.
3.3. Method of identifying feasible route
structure
To nd out an optimal solution, we have ap-
plied the vehicle routing problem (VRP) (Hadji-
constantinou & Roberts, 2002). Algebraically, the
problem can be written as:
In solving the selection of tourist spots in
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the study area, we have applied a sophisticated
VRP Spread sheet Solver as developed by Erdogan
(2017).
4. Discussions and future implications
These chronological fact-nding enquiries
highlights two broader areas of four trans-boundary
and national Shakti Peetham circuit development
and immediate attention for sustainable pilgrima-
ges. It is empirically found that mass pilgrimage
has both the worst- and the best-cases: worst be-
cause extreme crowding occurs; best because there
is mutuality between hosts and visitors as all are
worshippers (Bleie, 2003). These include future
threats to mass pilgrimages amidst COVID 19 out-
break to very sensitive rituals of animal cruelty,
killings etc. Dark and tantra tourism, associated
supernormal practices. Sakta pilgrimages and tan-
tra tourism are, to a great extent, similar but the
Shakta pilgrims look at the presiding mother god-
dess as supreme tantra tourism is agnostic, Ve-
dantic and include many Buddhist and Jain works
(Banerjee, 1992). The gure 3 shows the possible
concentration of Shakti Peethams for pilgrimages.
Figure 3 |
Proposed trans-boundary and Indian Shakti Peetham circuits for religious tourism, mythological tourism, dark and tantra
tourism
C1(Circuit 1)
- In and around Kolkata(Includes 6
Shaktipeethams)
1) Dakhineswar (Kolkata)- 2) Kalighat (Kol-
kata) 3) Bargabhima (Tamluk)- 4) Maamalai-
Chandi (Amta, Howrah) -5) Ratnavali (Khanakul,
Hooghly)- 6) Sri SrunkhalaPeetham or Hanseswari
Temple (Bandel, Hooghly)
C2 (Circuit 2)
In and around Birbhum (Includes
10 Shaktipeetham)
1) Bakreswar Shaktipeetham (Birbhum)
2) Nandikeswari (Birbhum) 3) Tarapeeth
(Birbhum) 4) Nalateswari (Nalhati, Birbhum)
5) Kiriteswari (Murshidabad) 6) Bahula (Ketu-
gram, PurboBardhaman) 7) Attahas Shaktipeeth
(Birbhum) 8) MaaJogadaya (PurboBardhaman)
9) MangalChandika (PurboBardhaman) 10)
Kankalitala (Bolpur, Birbhum)
C3 (Circuit 3)
It includes 3 shaktipeetham (2
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in India and 1 in Bangladesh)
1) Kamaksha Devi (Guwahati, Assam) 2)
NartiangDurga (Shilong, Meghalaya) 3) Sri
Hatta Kali (Sylhet, Bangladesh)
C4 (Circuit 4)
Bangladesh shaktipeetham cir-
cuit (It includes 3 shaktipeetham)
1) Dhakeswari (Dhaka) 2) Sunanda Devi
(Shikrapur, Barishal) 3) Jasoresswari (Jessore)
These circuits are expected to enhance domes-
tic and outbound pilgrimages and other special ni-
ches of inbound tourism. Circuit one (C1) and cir-
cuit two (C2) are proposed for intensive but plan-
ned mass pilgrim tourism, dark and tantra tou-
rism and such other special niches. The circuit th-
ree (C3) is trans-boundary and incorporating two
Shakti Peethams in India and one in Bangladesh,
while circuit 4 (C4) is completely international and
situated in Bangladesh. Circuit four (C4) can be
useful for India's outbound pilgrim tourism and
Bangladesh's inbound tourism for future. Howe-
ver, the policy issues for these circuit development
needs a two-fold analysis. One is extensively asso-
ciated with generic tourism planning and develop-
ment for pilgrim centers at regional, national and
international level, and another is a way forward
to sustainable pilgrimages. Specically for C1 and
C2, even many lesser known-pilgrim centers would
be promoted along with established one and tou-
rism activities are expected to be radiated into
many adjacent areas. C3 and C4 can initiate a
trans-boundary cooperation for tourism between
India and Bangladesh, with more economic bene-
ts to be accrued to the later country.
With regard to the way forward to sustainable
pilgrimage this research further initiates a research
on man-animal relation in these Shakti Peethams
that is critical, rather paradoxical for several thou-
sand years in South Asia. Culture, community and
religious aliations have direct association with ri-
tual slaughter of animals in many countries (Ler-
ner & Rabello, 2007). Tourists also randomly vi-
sit to pay respect or view such shrines or temples
where animal sacrice is oered to god or god-
dess, mainly the goddess Kali (abode of Shakti) in
India (Tul, 2015). This is how animal sacricing
place or religious centers are rather sources of at-
traction. Ritualistic animal sacricing procession
involves slaying of goats, chickens, pigeons, ducks,
shes, male water bualos, and such other animals
(Sébastia, 2004). As mentioned above, ritualistic
sacrice is associated either with special worship-
ping or occasional, very often celebrated during a
particular fair or festival.
There are thousands of unknown villages
and/or tribal festivals held responsible and do pro-
mote sacrice of goats, pigs, dogs, rams, hens,
ducks, bualoes, snakes etc. in South Asia. Fes-
tivals which is also considered as a tourism com-
modity and heritage attracts a lot of tourists and
locals at the expenses of dierent questionable ani-
mal use. Though at present animal sacrices can
create some problem still these rituals are practiced
as a part of heritage from forefathers, and it also
depicts one's own tradition and identity (Erschba-
mer, 2019). Religious trekking is one of the most
popular tourist activities in South Asia though so-
metimes associated with cruelty and sacrice of
animals for rituals in Indian Subcontinent (Gupta,
1999). Harsh training is also very common to ani-
mals so that they are extensively used in dierent
tourism activity like trekking, animal shows and
painting. Till date, uncountable villages and tribal
areas are famous for ritualistic cruelty and killings
of animals and other species. In many areas, excess
number of animals are also often sacriced to fulll
their personal vows (Hiltebeitel, 1980). Many pil-
grim centers in South Asia, more specically these
mythological Shakti Peetham, are known for ri-
tualistic animal sacrice, varying from a few to
thousands in numbers. These places of touris-
tic interest need immediate attention within the
preview of policy issues and environmental laws.
Recently, responsible tourism is discussing about
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the welfare of the tourist in tourism but also for
the welfare of the animals (Fennell, 2014; Fennell
et.al, 2020). As an approach, the diversity of the
world's cultures, habitats and species and the we-
alth of our common cultural and natural heritage,
as the very basis of tourism, to be protected in
dierent ways around the world across the gene-
ration (Goodwin, 2016). Therefore, the need of
the hour is to identify the tourists spots and occa-
sions associated with promoting animal sacrice,
killing, selling, tough training etc. This article is
focusing on those tourists spots and special occa-
sions and enhances further research for sustainable
pilgrimages and related other special interest tou-
rism, niche tourism etc.
Considering the maximum number of ten Shak-
tipeethams in the study, circuit 2 (C2) is chosen for
analyzing feasible route structure for further pene-
tration and preparation of the most feasible route
structure through vehicle routing problem (VRP).
The total distance to be covered by motorable ro-
adways is found 422 kilometers in this circuit 2
(C2) of circle trip starting from Tarapeeth, Ram-
purhat, in Birbhum, West Bengal India. Following
is the table 1 showing latitude and longitude of
each Shaktipeetham in circuit 2 to be further uti-
lized for drawing sequence of each Shaktipeetham
in the circuit 2(C2).
Table 1 |
Position of the Selected Tourist Spots
Source: Compiled by the authors' from Bing map Portal
Using the vehicle routing problem (VRP), the
most feasible route structure with respective se-
quence of each location for Shaktipeetham is exhi-
bited in table 2 for preparing and oering tour
packages for highly intensive religious tourism to
dierent types of niche tourism associated with the
circuit. Two important concentrations of locations
are also evident in Birbhum and Purba Bardhaman
districts of West Bengal. Tarapeetham or Tarape-
eth (Rampurhat) in Birbhum is already a popular
domestic pilgrim center and situated very close to
Bakreswar, Nandikeswari and Nalateswari and re-
presents the rst concentration of Shaktipeetham.
The second concentration is the Purba Bardhaman
district with Bahula temple, Ujani Mata temple,
Attahas temple and Maa Jogadaya temple respec-
tively. Therefore, a district town Katwa in Purba
Bardhaman, is highly recommended for overnight
staying and other facilities of the tourists as this
destination is not developed and promoted for tou-
rism and pilgrimage.
The gure 4 in the study area shows the se-
quence and two important concentrations of Shak-
tipeetham and further recommends overnight ac-
commodation at least in two places viz. Tarapeeth
(Birbhum) and Katwa (Purba Bardhaman) respec-
tively.
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Table 2 |
Distance wise sequential destinations for Shakti circuit
Source: Author's estimation
Figure 4 |
Location of the Selected Nodes for Circuit 2(C2)
Route:
Depot (Rampurhat) Location 4(Kiri-
teswari, Murshidabad district) Location 9(Kan-
kalitala, Birbhum) Location 5(Bahula, Pur-
boBardhaman) Location 8(UjaniShaktipeeth
Shri MangalChandi Temple, PurboBardhaman)
Location 6(AttahasShaktipeeth,Katowa) Lo-
cation 7(MaaJogadaya, PurboBardhaman) Lo-
cation 1(Bakreswar, Birbhum) Location 2(Nan-
dikeswari, Birbhum ) Location 3(Nalateswari,
Birbhum) Depot(Rampurhat)
5. Conclusion
This study discusses about trans-boundary re-
ligious tourism, typical rituals and practices for
mythological and dark tourism of international at-
tention and interest. Through vehicle routing pro-
blem (VRP), this study exhibits the most feasible
route structure for the largest circuit with the most
rational sequence for destinations. Therefore, this
study identies the places of overnight accommo-
dation and other facilities, such as Katowa, for fu-
ture infrastructure development and promotion. In
doing so, this study describes a cost-eective ap-
proach and how to avoid familiarization trip while
developing tourist circuits and with tourism e-
ciencies and scientic product development (Ba-
tabyal, 2010; Ghosh & Batabyal, 2022). Together
with intensive mass pilgrimage, this study contri-
butes to the planning, development and promotion
of religious trekking, religious fairs, and festivals,
other alternative niches for future sustainable pil-
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grimages along with alternative pilgrim centers of
equal religious and ritualistic importance. While
identication of new site is a scope for develo-
ping proactive sustainable pilgrim center, inten-
sive mass pilgrim centers draw immediate atten-
tion for assessing tourism impacts and certain sus-
tainable recommendations without violating com-
munity sentiment.
5.1. Limitations of the Study
This study avoids the contradiction in litera-
ture and theology, and focuses on places of ac-
tual practice and of touristic importance for fu-
ture Indian sub-continental religious, mythologi-
cal, dark and tantra tourism circuit(s) through
vehicle routing system for feasible tour packages.
Also, the respective distances among the Shaktipe-
ethams are initially retrieved from Google map and
further investigations and clarications are made
through the interviews of the transport operators
in the concerned areas only, instead of familiariza-
tion trips.
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