On the bank of the Kopai river near Bolpur and Tagore's Santiniketan, in the Birbhum district, lies Kankalitala — its very name meaning the place of the skeletal frame. In the tradition of the Peethas, the waist and pelvic bones (kankal) of Sati fell here, and the Goddess is worshipped as Devgarbha, also called Kankaleshwari, with Ruru as her Bhairava.
Rather than a bodily image, the Mother is honoured as a sacred stone beneath a tree beside a small tank (kund) into which, tradition holds, the relic descended. Revered as the goddess of the cosmic womb, Kankalitala draws those who seek the Mother's blessing for fertility and new life, and is a cherished seat among the Shakti Peethas of Birbhum.
