Una District · Himachal Pradesh · Shivalik Hills · 40 km from Una Town
Where the feet of Goddess Sati fell in the Shivalik Hills of Himachal Pradesh — Chintpurni Mata, the Goddess who removes all worries and fills them with joy. Her image is a pindi (round sacred stone) without a human form. Four Shiva temples guard her from equidistant cardinal directions. Her other name — Chhinnamastika — is the headless goddess who drinks her own blood: selflessness in its most extreme divine form.
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Chintpurni Mata Temple is located in Chintpurni village (also spelled Chintpurni town), Una district, Himachal Pradesh, approximately 40 km from Una town and 150 km from Chandigarh. The temple is in the Shivalik Hills — the lower range of the outer Himalayas bordering Punjab — surrounded by lush forest. The western Himalayas rise to the north, the Shivalik range forms the eastern border with Punjab.
According to the Shakta tradition, the feet (pada) of Goddess Sati fell at Chintpurni. The feet — the part of the divine body that touches the earth, the lowest point, the foundation — became sacred here. When a devotee bows at the feet of the Goddess, they touch the exact point of the divine body that touched this earth. The name "Chintpurni" means "one who fulfills all worries" — or more precisely, "one who removes all anxieties and grants peace." The Goddess is also known as Chhinnamastika Devi — Chinnamasta — the headless goddess who severs her own head and stands on the bodies of the divine couple, drinking the stream of blood from her severed neck.
A striking feature of the Chintpurni complex is the four Shiva temples positioned at the four cardinal directions, equidistant from the main shrine: Kaleshwar Mahadev (east), Narayana Mahadev (west), Muchkund Mahadev (north), and Shiva Bari (south). These four Bhairava-form Shiva temples form a cosmic mandala protecting the central Shakti shrine — Shiva-Rudra standing guard in all four directions around his beloved Sati's feet. This arrangement is described as the unity of Ardhanarishwar — Shiva and Shakti as one entity, the masculine in protective service around the feminine centre.
The sacred idol itself is a pindi — a round stone, considered aniconic, symbolising the feet of the deity without representing a human or divine form. The pindi is the ancient Himalayan mode of sacred representation that pre-dates and coexists with anthropomorphic idol worship. The temple was established (or re-established in its current form) by Pandit Mai Das, a devotee, in the 16th century, though the site's sacred history is considerably older.
Why People Visit
The worry-removing Goddess in the forest-green Shivalik Hills of Devi Bhumi Himachal Pradesh — the pindi stone, the four Shiva guardians, the headless Mahavidya who grants peace through radical divine surrender.
Getting There
Chintpurni is ~40 km from Una town, ~150 km from Chandigarh, ~420 km from Delhi, ~60 km from Gaggal Airport (Kangra). The nearest railway station is Amb Andaura (~20 km). HRTC buses run from Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.
Visitor Guidelines
In the Shivalik forest, on a green hill above the plains of Punjab, the feet of Sati rest in a round stone. Chintpurni — the Goddess who removes worry — guards four Shiva temples in a perfect mandala, and receives the tired, the anxious, the burdened. The headless Chhinnamastika knows what to do with fear: cut it at the root. Come. Leave your chinta here. Take back only peace.