Kanya Kumari

Kanya Kumari Shakti Peetha stands at the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu — the point where the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean converge. The goddess Kanya Kumari (the virgin maiden goddess) is worshipped here in her eternal unmarried form, waiting for the divine marriage that never arrived.

The temple, built in the Dravidian style, faces east toward the ocean, and the idol of the goddess is adorned with a brilliant diamond nose-stud that is said to light up the sea at night and once misled sailors. The sunrise and sunset over three oceans simultaneously is one of the most spectacular natural events in India — pilgrims arrive specifically for this darshan of the meeting of three seas. The Bhairava at this Peetha is Nirashvar. Adjacent to the Kanya Kumari temple are the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thiruvalluvar statue — where Swami Vivekananda meditated before his 1893 journey to Chicago. The site combines an ancient Shakti Peetha with the most scenic continental tip pilgrimage in India.

Sati's back (some texts say the spine, or the back of the upper body) fell at the southernmost point of the subcontinent. The back — the supporting column of the body, the spine of dharma — sanctified this land's end. The goddess here is Kanya Kumari — the eternal virgin who performed tapas to marry Shiva, but Shiva did not come at the appointed hour (the gods distracted him, fearing that if the marriage occurred their power would end). She remains ever the virgin, waiting, her great power undiminished by any union — the most complete, self-sufficient form of Shakti.