மாதவேஸ்வரி (அலோபி) தேவி கோயில் (பிரயாகை)Madhaveswari (Alopi Devi) Temple, Prayagraj

Sthala Mahātmyam

Madhaveswari at Prayagraj, invoked as 'Prayage Madhaveshwari', is the fourteenth Maha Shakti Peetha, at the Sangam city where the Ganga, Yamuna and the unseen Sarasvati meet. She is worshipped as Alopi Mata, also identified with Lalita, at the Alopi Devi temple in Alopibagh. Tradition holds that the fingers of Sati's hand (hastanguli) fell, and by the local legend the final part of the Divine Mother vanished (alop) here, giving the place its name Alopi, 'she who disappeared'. Fittingly, the sanctum holds no image: a wooden swing-cradle (doli) is venerated as the seat of the goddess, a rare and distinctive form of worship. As the presiding Shakti of Prayaga, itself the king of tirthas (Tirtharaja), she is deeply woven into the sanctity of the Sangam and its bathing pilgrimages. Chief occasions are Navaratri and Durga Puja, and above all the great Magh Mela and the Kumbh / Ardh Kumbh at the Sangam, when millions of pilgrims bathe at the confluence and throng her shrine.