Bishnupur Chhinnamasta Temple

BBishnupur is famous for its terracotta temples.

After spending hours looking at the curved roofs, brick walls and elaborate terracotta panels of the Malla-period temples, the Chhinnamasta Temple comes as a complete change.

This is not an ancient terracotta monument.

It is a relatively modern and active Shakti shrine, located near the famous Dalmadal Cannon. The temple is small, and its architecture is simple. Yet the murti inside is one of the most unusual forms of the Goddess that one is likely to encounter in Bishnupur.

The temple is generally described as being around a century old and is associated with the Guin family of Midnapore.

Chhinnamasta

Chhinnamasta is one of the ten Mahavidyas, the group of powerful forms of the Divine Feminine associated particularly with Shakta and Tantric traditions.

Her iconography is impossible to mistake.

The Goddess has severed her own head.

She holds the head in one hand and a sword in the other. Three streams of blood rise from her neck. The central stream reaches the mouth of her own severed head, while the other two are received by her attendants, Dakini and Varnini.

It is a fierce image.

But it is not simply an image of violence.

Chhinnamasta has been interpreted through several seemingly contradictory ideas: life and death, destruction and regeneration, self-sacrifice and nourishment, desire and control over desire. The Goddess destroys herself, yet at the same time sustains both herself and those beside her.

That contradiction is perhaps what makes the image so powerful.

Look Beneath the Goddess

There is another detail that should not be missed.

Chhinnamasta stands upon a male and female couple lying on a large lotus.

The couple is generally identified in Chhinnamasta iconography as Kama and Rati, representing desire. The Goddess standing above them has consequently been interpreted as the triumph of spiritual energy over physical desire, although Tantric imagery rarely lends itself to just one simple explanation.

Dakini and Varnini stand on either side of the Goddess and drink from the two streams of blood flowing towards them.

All three figures are represented without clothing.

This too is part of the traditional iconography rather than an ornamental detail. The figure of Chhinnamasta deliberately strips away the gentle and familiar appearance we usually associate with many forms of the Goddess.

Nothing about this murti is meant to be comfortable.

A Small Temple with an Unusual Murti

The temple itself is compact.

There is the principal shrine of Chhinnamasta and another shrine containing a Shiva Linga. Compared with Bishnupur's celebrated Jorbangla, Madanmohan or Rasmancha, there is little here in terms of monumental architecture.

That is precisely why the experience is different.

At the historic temples of Bishnupur, I found myself looking at walls, roofs and hundreds of terracotta panels.

Here, almost all the attention goes towards one murti.

The severed head.

The three streams of blood.

The two attendants.

And the couple beneath the feet of the Goddess.

It is an image that demands that you stop and look properly.

Bishnupur may be known primarily for its terracotta heritage.

But this little temple near the Dalmadal Cannon shows a completely different side of the town's religious landscape.

Happy travelling.