SRI KANCHI KAMAKSHI TEMPLE

Sri Kanchi Kamakshi Temple is an ancient Hindu Temple dedicated to the goddess Kamakshi, one of the highest aspects of Adi Shakti in Shaktism. It is located in the historic city of Kanchipuram, near Chennai, India. Its construction is credited to the Pallava kings, whose capital was in the same city. This temple, along with the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and the Akilandeswari temple in Thiruvanaikaval near Tiruchirappalli are the important centers of Goddess worship in the state of Tamil Nadu. The image of the main deity, Kamakshi, is seated in a Padmasana, a yogic posture signifying peace and prosperity, instead of the traditional standing pose. The goddess holds a sugarcane bow and bunch of five flowers in the lower two of her arms and has a pasha (lasso), an ankusha (goad) in her upper two arms. A parrot perches near the flower bunch. There are no other goddess temples in the city of Kanchipuram, apart from this one, which is unusual in a city that has hundreds of traditional temples. There are various legends that account for this fact. According to a local legend, Adi Shankaracharya established the Sri Chakra in this Kamakshi Devi temple in the trough-like structure in that shrine. In some Hindu scriptures, Kamakshi Amman is considered in line with Meenakshi at Madurai, and Visalakshi at Varanasi. Kamakshi is the only Shakti shrine centered across all Shiva temples in Kanchipuram which do not have separate shrines for Amman. Kamakshi is praised 

as ‘Shri Matha’ (respected mother) as the first name in Lalitha Sahasranama. Tantric texts such as Tripura Rahasya, Bahvrucha Upanishad, as well as Puranas such Brahmanda Purana and Markandeya Purana discuss how Lalitha Devi resides in Kamakoti Peetha in Kanchi.