Kanchipuram

Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu — the City of a Thousand Temples — is the southernmost of the Sapta Puri and one of the most architecturally extraordinary sacred cities in India. A compact city of perhaps 400,000 people, it contains approximately 108 functioning temples (reduced from many more over centuries of loss), covering the full spectrum of Hindu traditions: Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Shakta.

The three anchor temples define Kanchipuram's sacred identity. The Kamakshi Amman temple at its heart is one of the three most important Shakti temples in India — the goddess here in her Kamakshi form (desire-eyed) is the presiding deity of the city. The Ekambaranathar temple is one of the Pancha Bhuta Stalas — the five Shiva temples each representing one of the five elements — with the earth linga (prithvi lingam) here associated with a sacred mango tree in the inner courtyard said to be 3,500 years old. The Varadharaja Perumal temple is one of the 108 Divya Desams. Adi Shankaracharya established the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham here — one of his four cardinal mutts, which remains an active institution with living Shankaracharyas.

Kanchipuram is the site where the goddess Parvati performed tapas and was married to Shiva — the spot is the Kamakshi Amman temple where she is worshipped as the form of desire consummated in union with the divine. The Ekambaranathar temple marks where Parvati, separated from Shiva, worshipped the prithvi (earth) linga she fashioned under a mango tree — Shiva appeared and reunited with her. The mango tree in the temple's inner sanctum is said to be thousands of years old, its four branches bearing four different varieties of mangoes representing the four Vedas.