Lord Dattatreya Birth Place, Mahurgad, Maharashtra

Mahur (MAHURGUD) is the famous Datta kshetra. It is the birth place of Lord Dattatreya. This place is visited by thousands of Piligrims throughout the year.  Apart from Datta temple there are other famous temples LIKE  ANASUYA TEMPLE (Mother of Lord Dattatreya).

KALIKA TEMPLE AND RENUKA MA TEMPLE  and EKAVEERIKA   TEMPLE. Mahur village is 40 KMs north-west of Kinwat town in Nanded district in the Marathawada division of Maharashtra. As per Sri Adi Shankarachrya’s shaktipeethas shlok the 8th Shakti peethas is ‘ Mahurye Ekaveerika’.

The full shloka is….Lankayam Shankari devi, Kamakshi Kanchika pure /Pradyumne Shrinkhala devi, Chamunda Krouncha pattane //Alampure Jogulamba, Sri shaile Bhramarambika /Kolha pure Maha lakshmi, Mahurye Ekaveerika //Ujjainyam Maha kali, Peethikayam Puruhutika /Odhyane Girija devi, Manikya Daksha vatike //Hari kshetre Kama rupi, Prayage Madhaveshwari /Jwalayam Vishnavi devi, Gaya Mangalya gourika //Varanasyam Vishalakshi, Kashmire tu Saraswati /Ashtadasha Shakti peethani, Yoginamapi durlabham //Sayamkale pathennityam, Sarva shatri vinashanam /Sarva roga haram divyam, Sarva sampatkaram shubham //

Ekaveerika devi temple is in Mahur , Maharashtra. The deity here is called Ekaveerika mata. The temple is in Yavatmal district in Maharashtra. It is 50 km from Kinwat and 126 km from Nanded. Nagpur is 210 km by road from Mahur. Sati’s Right shoulder has fallen here.

The back ground of falling of body parts of Sati Devi is as below:
There was a great king called Daksha Prajapati who was son of Lord Brahma. He had 27 daughters and Sati devi is one among them. Sati devi got married to Lord Shiva. When Dashka entered the arena of a yaga performed by Agni, every one except Lord Shiva stood up as a mark of respect. Daksha felt insulted by Lord Shiva’s behaviour. Later when Daksha conducted a yaga him self , he did not invite his daughter and his son in law.Though Sati felt bad because of the non invitation, she wanted to attend the yaga against the wish of Lord Shiva.When Sati, attended the yaga no body has cared for her and she felt insulted by the actions of her sisters and parents. Then when her father started abusing her husband she could not control her feelings and sacrified herself at the place of yagna by creating agni from earth with her right thumb of her foot.Knowing this Lord Shiva removed one bunch of Jhatha from his head and hit it on the earth. From that Lord Veerabhadra has born and rushed to yaga spot and killed Daksha by cutting his head. Later Shiva went to the spot and taken the body of sati from the fire and started dancing with it. The world was terrorized from this Tandava Nritya and to stop this Nritya, Vishnu used his Sudarshan chakra and completely cut the Sati’s body in to pieces. These body parts have fallen at various places in India and Srilanka. Where ever these parts have fallen the places are called Shaktipeethas. There are 18 such places and they are called Ashta (8) Dasa(10) Shakti peethas.

Mahur is famous for Renuka Devi temple and very few people are knowing about Ekaveerika devi temple and mostly they call Renuka devi temple as shakti peeth. We find more rush at Renuka devi temple than Ekaveerika mata temple. It is said that Ekaveerika Devi is the elder sister of Renukadevi. Renuka devi temple is 800 years old. Ekaveerika Devi temple is 8 km from Renuka devi temple on Nanded high way and 300M from the main road.

The three important temples of Renuka mata, Dattatreya and Anasuya temple are built on three mountain ranges. Mahur is surrounded by Jungles which bear wild animals like peacocks , deers, black bears and panthers. In these forests Teak wood trees are more. The importance of Datta temple here is that unlike other Datta kshetras where we find Padukas of Datta,the idol of Lord is been worshipped.

Datta bhagavan is known as Chiranjeevi or the immortal avatar. So it is believed that he dwells in SOOKSHMA ROOPA or the minutest form in all his kshetras. So it is believed that Mahur is also a place where DattaGuru comes to sleep. As per the belief the saying goes that Datta Prabhu takes his NITYA SNAN (daily bath) In Meruwada Talao in Mahur, BHIKSHA(Meal served to a sadhu) at Kolhapur,BHOJAN(food) at Panchleswar and gets back to sleep in Mahur. Devadeveswar Temple is the nidra sthan of Lord Dattatreya.