("mouth of
fire") One of the nine Shiwalik goddesses and the presiding deity of the
Jwalamukhi temple in Himachal Pradesh.
Jwalamukhi is one of the Shakti Pithas, a network of
locations holy to the goddess that stretches throughout the Indian
subcontinent, according to the site's legendary charter.
Each Shakti Pitha commemorates the location where a piece of
the dismembered goddess Sati fell to earth and reincarnated as a new goddess;
in the case of Jwalamukhi, the bodily part was Sati's tongue.
Because the human tongue is such a strong portion of the
body, linked to speaking, eating, and sex, Jwalamukhi is seen as a highly powerful
temple.
A little natural gas vent in the cave where the shrine is
located has been illuminated for as long as anybody can remember.
This flame is said to represent the Goddess's self-expressed
(svayambhu) form, manifested in the shape of her tongue.
See David R. Kinsley's Hindu Goddesses (1986) and Kathleen Erndl's Victory To The Mother (1993) for further information.
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