Kalmadhav

Kalmadhav is a peeth whose precise location is debated, and it is placed in the vicinity of Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, where the left buttock of Sati is said to have fallen. The goddess is Kali, described here simply as Devi, and the Bhairava is Asitanga Bhairav. The name Kalmadhav joins the dark goddess Kali with Madhava, a name of Vishnu, suggesting a union of Shakti and Vishnu in one place name.

Some traditions describe a cave or spring site near the source of the Sone river, and the Amarkantak plateau is a highland meeting point of the Narmada, Sone and other rivers, long regarded as a sacred location. Because the Shondesh peeth is also placed at Amarkantak, with the right buttock, the plateau is shown as holding two peeth claims. The Tantra Chudamani and the Pithanirnaya do not give an identical list for this region, and local sacred geography differs.

This is one of the peeths where the careful reader should note the word debated. The lists sometimes carry names of places that cannot be confirmed on a modern map, and regional traditions adopt a nearby site as the peeth. What stays constant is the Daksha yajna narrative, in which Vishnu divides the body of Sati so that Shiva may be freed from his grief, and each fallen part becomes a living seat of the goddess guarded by a Bhairava.