Dakini

Dakini — Wife of the Tripurasura Brothers in the Bhimashankar Tradition

Dakini · Dakinyam (topographic form) · Dakini (class of attendant beings in Mahapuranas, distinct usage)

Dakini appears in two distinct registers of Hindu sacred literature that must be carefully distinguished from each other. In the Mahapuranic tradition — including the Shiva Purana, the Brahmanda Purana, and the Bhagavata Purana — Dakini denotes a class of fearsome female attendant beings associated with the goddess Kali and with Shiva's retinue, not an individual named figure. In the regional sacred tradition of the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga temple in the Sahyadri hills of Maharashtra, however, Dakini is named as one of the two devoted wives of the three Tripurasura brothers — Tarakaksha, Kamalaksha, and Vidyunmali — who were the sons of Tarakasura. It is in this second, regionally specific context that Dakini is relevant to the Tripurasura genealogy. The name Dakini is preserved in the epithet "Dakinyam Bhimashankaram" found in the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram attributed to Shankaracharya, which locates the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga in the realm or land of Dakini, and in the site's traditional designation as Shivtirtha Dakinyanam Bhimashankaram.

✦ The Name

The Sanskrit term dakini has its roots in a word meaning a female being of power and, in some contexts, a being associated with flesh or with the vital essence of life. In Puranic usage the term most commonly denotes a class of demonesses or powerful female attendants. As a proper name in the Bhimashankar tradition, Dakini is the personal name of one of the two wives of the Tripurasura brothers, and the territory of the Bhimashankar shrine came to be called Dakinyanam — "that which belongs to Dakini" or "the realm of Dakini" — in direct reference to her association with the site following the events described in the sthalapurana.

✦ Lineage and Marital Connection

• Husband(s): According to the Bhimashankar sthalapurana, Dakini is the wife of the Tripurasura brothers collectively. The tradition presents her alongside Shakini as the two devoted wives of Tripurasura. In the Bhimashankar sthalapurana's local version of events, the three brothers are sometimes treated as a single collective entity called Tripurasura rather than as three distinct individuals. No Mahapurana assigns Dakini individually to any one of the three brothers by name.

✦ The Bhimashankar Narrative: Devotion and Immortality

The sthalapurana of Bhimashankar records that after Shiva destroyed Tripurasura in his colossal Bhima form on the full moon night of Kartik month — the occasion celebrated as Tripurasura Pournima — Dakini and Shakini, the widowed wives of the slain asuras, approached Shiva with a profound question about their continued existence without their husbands. Moved by their devotion and by the sincerity of their lamentation, Shiva granted both women the boon of immortality. The region where this event took place came thereafter to be known as Dakinyanam, the land of Dakini, and the Jyotirlinga installed at this site bears the name Bhimashankar in the Dakini realm — hence the full traditional designation Dakinyanam Bhimashankaram. Some versions of the sthalapurana further record that Shiva appointed Dakini and Shakini as his attendants or ganas, elevating them from asura wives to divine servitors. A shrine to these two figures is maintained within the Bhimashankar temple complex.

✦ Dakini in the Mahapuranas: A Distinct Tradition

It is essential to note that in the Mahapuranas, Dakini is not an individual wife of any asura but a member of a class of female beings. The Shiva Purana records that when Virabhadra and Mahakali were sent by Shiva against the yajna of Prajapati Daksha, they were accompanied by, among others, Dakini and Shakini as part of the terrifying divine retinue. The Brahmanda Purana describes the sage Parashurama witnessing dakinis among Shiva's ganas on Mount Kailash. The Bhagavata Purana references protective rites performed against dakinis. In all these Mahapuranic passages, dakini and shakini are categories of supernatural beings, not individual women with personal names connected to the Tripurasura myth. The identification of Dakini and Shakini as individual wives of the Tripurasuras belongs specifically and exclusively to the Bhimashankar regional tradition.

✦ The Toponym and the Jyotirlinga Stotram

The most widely known textual evidence for the name Dakini in connection with Bhimashankar is the verse in the Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram — the hymn enumerating the twelve Jyotirlingas — in which the phrase "Dakinyam Bhimashankaram" identifies the sixth Jyotirlinga as located in the realm of Dakini. This stotram, traditionally attributed to Shankaracharya, is recited widely across the Shaiva tradition and has ensured that the name Dakini became permanently attached to the geography of this sacred site, even in contexts where devotees are not familiar with the specific sthalapurana narrative behind the name.

✦ References

• Primary Sources
• Bhimashankar Sthalapurana / Bhimashankar temple tradition (Maharashtra): The principal source for Dakini as a named individual wife of the Tripurasuras; records her approach to Shiva after the destruction of Tripura, the granting of immortality, and the origin of the toponym Dakinyanam.
• Dvadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram (attributed to Shankaracharya): Contains the phrase "Dakinyam Bhimashankaram," establishing the topographic name Dakini in connection with the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga in the wider devotional tradition.
• Shiva Purana, 2.2.33: Uses "Dakini" and "Shakini" as names of classes of fearsome female attendants in the divine retinue of Kali and Virabhadra — a distinct usage from the Bhimashankar tradition.
• Brahmanda Purana, 3.41.30: Records dakinis as members of Shiva's gana retinue on Mount Kailash.
• Bhagavata Purana, 10.06.27–29: References protective rites against dakinis in the context of the infant Krishna.
• Secondary Sources
• Wikipedia, "Dakini": Summarises the Mahapuranic usages of dakini as a class of beings, and notes the passages from the Shiva Purana, Brahmanda Purana, and Bhagavata Purana.
• Bhimashankar.net.in (official Bhimashankar temple site): Records the sthalapurana tradition and the origin of the name Dakinyanam Bhimashankaram.
• Hindutsav.com and Templepurohit.com: Document the Bhimashankar sthalapurana narrative including the shrine to Dakini and Shakini within the temple complex.