சாரதா பீடம் (சரஸ்வதி), காஷ்மீர்Sharada (Saraswati) Peeth, Kashmir

Sthala Mahātmyam

Sharada, Saraswati, at Sharada Peeth is invoked as 'Kashmire tu Saraswati', the eighteenth and final Maha Shakti Peetha of the stotram. Set in the Neelum (Kishanganga) valley of present-day Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the ancient shrine venerates the goddess as a threefold embodiment, Sharada (learning), Saraswati (knowledge) and Vagdevi (speech). Tradition holds that the right hand of Sati fell here. So central was the goddess that Kashmir itself was called Sharada Desh, and Kashmiri Pandits still bow in her direction at the start of learning; the Sharada script takes its name from her. Between roughly the 6th and 12th centuries, Sharada Peeth was among the foremost universities of the subcontinent, ranked with Takshashila and Nalanda, famed for its vast library and scholars and revered as a great seat of Sanskrit learning. The temple today survives only as ruins in a militarised border region, largely inaccessible to Indian pilgrims, its sanctity honoured in memory and prayer rather than in living worship. Where possible, Navaratri and the goddess's veneration on Sharada and Basant occasions are observed.