Maa Katyayani Shakti Peeth (Umang Mandir)

Maa Katyayani Shakti Peeth, popularly called Umang Mandir, stands on Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg in Vrindavan, roughly 12 km north of Mathura. It is counted among the 51 (in some lists 52) Shakti Peeths of the subcontinent — the network of sacred spots where, in Puranic tradition, parts of the goddess Sati's body are said to have fallen as Vishnu's discus cut her form while a grieving Shiva carried her across the heavens.

• Here tradition holds that the ringlets, or curls, of Sati's hair came to rest; the presiding Shakti is worshipped as Katyayani (a fierce, protective form of the Devi) and her Bhairava as Bhuteshwar.
• That double identity — a pan-Indian Shakti Peeth set inside Krishna's own Braj — gives the shrine a character found almost nowhere else.
• What makes this Devi temple distinctly a Braj site is the Katyayani-vrat of the gopis.
• The Bhagavata Purana relates that during the winter month of Margashirsha (Agrahayana) the young, unmarried cowherd daughters of Gokula rose before dawn, bathed in the Yamuna, moulded a clay image of goddess Katyayani, offered her flowers and simple food, and vowed the month-long observance with a single prayer — that Krishna become their husband.
• For devotees the goddess here is therefore not only the protective Mother but the deity who granted the gopis their heart's desire, and unmarried pilgrims still come to seek her blessing for a good marriage.
• In physical form the temple is a modest, well-kept marble shrine rather than a towering monument.
• A sanctum houses the Devi's image, aartis are sung morning and evening, and the courtyard fills during the nine nights of Navratri and on Ashtami, when the Katyayani-associated worship peaks.
• On ordinary days it is a calm, unhurried stop that pairs naturally with the nearby ISKCON temple.
• Vegetarian and alcohol-free travellers are entirely at home in Vrindavan, a temple town that is pure-vegetarian by custom and municipal norm; sattvic thalis and khoya sweets are everywhere.
• One firm caution, though: Braj is among India's heaviest bhang (cannabis) belts, and roadside thandai or lassi stalls near temples and ghats may serve bhang versions that look and are named almost identically to the ordinary drink.
• Stick to reputed pure-vegetarian kitchens and named sweet shops, and skip anonymous thandai stalls.