ely traceable to
the idea that the dismemberment of a deity or a human representative
ensures fertility. Until recently the Khonds of Bengal used to hack
human victims in pieces as a sacrifice to the Earth Goddess and throw
the shreds of flesh on the fields to secure a good harvest.[725] In
Sanskrit literature I have not found any authority for the
dismemberment of Sati earlier than the Tantras or Upapuranas (_e.g._
Kalika), but this late appearance does not mean that the legend is
late in itself but merely that it was not countenanced by Sanskrit
writers until medieval times. Various reasons for the dismemberment
are given and the incident is rather awkwardly tacked on to other
stories. One common version relates that when Sati (one of the many
forms of Sakti) died of vexation because her husband Siva was insulted
by her father Daksha, Siva took up her corpse and wandered
distractedly carrying it on his shoulder.[726] In order to stop this
penance Vishnu followed him and cut off pieces from the corpse with
his quoit until the whole had fallen to earth in fifty-one pieces. The
spots where these pieces touched the ground are held sacred and called
piths. At most of them are shown a rock supposed to represent some
portion of the goddess's body and some object called a bhairabi, left
by Siva as a guardian to protect her and often taking the form of a
lingam. The most important of these piths are Kamakhya near Gauhati,
Faljur in the Jaintia Parganas, and Kalighat in Calcutta.[727]

Though the Sakti of Siva is theoretically one, yet since she assumes
many forms she becomes in practice many deities or rather she is many
deities combined in one or sometimes a sovereign attended by a retinue
of similar female spirits. Among such forms we find the ten
Mahavidyas, or personifications of her supernatural knowledge; the
Mahamatris, Matrikas or the Great Mothers, allied to the aboriginal
goddesses already mentioned; the Nayakas or mistresses; the Yoginis or
sorceresses, and fiends called Dakinis. But the most popular of her
manifestations are Durga and Kali. The sects which revere these
goddesses are the most important religious bodies in Bengal, where
they number thirty-five million adherents. The Durgapuja is the
greatest festival of the year in north-eastern India[728] and in the
temple of Kalighat at Calcutta may be seen the singular spectacle of
educated Hindus decapitating goats before the image of Kali. It is a
black female