SSC
The Hinglaj Mata Temple, one of the 51 Shakti Peethas, is situated in:
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Answer: Option D — Pakistan
Detailed Solution
The Hinglaj Mata Temple is located in a mountain cave in the Lasbela district of Balochistan province, Pakistan, inside the Hingol National Park, near the Hingol river.
About the Hinglaj Mata Temple:
It is one of the 51 "Shakti Peethas", the sacred shrines of the Goddess (Shakti).
According to Hindu tradition, when Lord Shiva carried the body of his wife Sati after her self-immolation, Lord Vishnu cut her body into pieces with his "Sudarshan Chakra" to calm Shiva. The places where the parts fell became Shakti Peethas. At Hinglaj, Sati's head (or brahmarandhra, the crown of the head) is believed to have fallen.
The goddess is worshipped as "Hinglaj Mata", "Hingula Devi" or "Nani Mandir" (by local Muslims, who also respect the shrine and call the pilgrimage "Nani ki Haj").
The deity is a shapeless stone smeared with vermilion (sindoor).
It is the largest Hindu pilgrimage site in Pakistan.
The annual four-day "Hinglaj Yatra" is held in April; it attracts more than a lakh pilgrims, mainly from Pakistan's Hindu community in Sindh and Balochistan.
In the past, pilgrims had to cross the desert on foot or camels; the "Makran Coastal Highway" (2004) made it much easier to reach.
The temple is about 250 km from Karachi.
It is also revered by the Charan community and by the Kshatriya communities of Gujarat and Rajasthan, as their family goddess (kuldevi).
About Hingol National Park:
- It is the largest national park of Pakistan.
- It contains the "Princess of Hope", a natural rock formation, and the mud volcanoes of Chandragup, which pilgrims climb as part of the yatra.
Other Shakti Peethas outside India:
- Guhyeshwari Temple (Kathmandu, Nepal).
- Sugandha (Shikarpur, Bangladesh) and Jeshoreshwari (Satkhira, Bangladesh).
- Nainativu (Nagapooshani Amman Temple, Jaffna, Sri Lanka).
- Manasa (near Lake Manasarovar, Tibet).
Important Shakti Peethas in India:
Kamakhya Temple (Guwahati, Assam), Kalighat (Kolkata), Jwalamukhi (Himachal Pradesh), Vishalakshi (Varanasi), Tarapith (Birbhum), and Ambaji (Gujarat).
Why not the other options?
- ✗India has most of the Shakti Peethas, but Hinglaj is in Pakistan.
- ✗Nepal has the Guhyeshwari Shakti Peetha.
- ✗Bangladesh has the Sugandha and Jeshoreshwari Shakti Peethas.
Quick tip
Remember: Hinglaj Mata = Lasbela, Balochistan, Pakistan (Shakti Peetha where Sati's head fell; Hingol National Park; "Nani ki Haj"; yatra in April); Kamakhya = Guwahati; Guhyeshwari = Kathmandu.
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Monuments & Religious Places — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Monuments & Religious Places, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's important monuments, temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras and pilgrimage sites, who built them and when, their architectural styles, and India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Questions ask who built a monument, where it is located, or which dynasty or style it belongs to. For example, the Qutub Minar was begun by Qutbuddin Aibak, and the Sun Temple at Konark was built by the Eastern Ganga king Narasimhadeva I. Revise the UNESCO World Heritage Sites as a list, noting the most recent additions. Practise the monuments and religious places questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.