Lalita (Prayagraj)

Alopibagh in Prayagraj is the place where, in the account used here, a finger of Sati fell, and the goddess is honoured as Lalita, also known as Alopi Devi. The Bhairava is Bhava. The name Alopi, meaning she who vanished, is explained in local tradition by a story that the goddess disappeared from sight, and the shrine is unusual in that worship is directed to a cradle or a platform rather than a carved image, according to local accounts.

Prayag is the sacred confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna, with the Sarasvati held to join them unseen. It is the site of the Kumbh Mela and a place of ritual bathing and ancestral rites. Having a goddess seat at such a confluence deepens its significance, tying the flow of rivers to the energy of Shakti. Lalita is an important name in the Sri Vidya lineage, associated with the Lalita Sahasranama, so the peeth connects to a major devotional text.

There is another tradition, centred on the Lalita shrine at the Sangam, which names a finger of the hand with the same goddess and Bhairava. This duplication shows how lists sometimes carry two traditions about one city, one placing the shrine at Alopibagh and another at the confluence itself. The Pithanirnaya and the Tantra Chudamani are not identical, and local worshippers prefer their own sites.