Kamakshi Amman Temple Kanchipuram,Tamil Nadu
The Kamakshi Amman Temple is an ancient Hindu Temple dedicated to the goddess Kamakshi, one of the highest aspects of Adi Shakti in Shaktism. There are shrines even for Maha Vishnu and Maha Lakshmi in the temple. The temple is located in the historic city of Kanchipuram, near Chennai, India. The temple is one of the 108 Divya Desams of Maha Vishnu and called as Tirukalavanur Divya Desam, the temple is dedicated Mainly to Kamakshi and then Vishnu in his form of Varaha. The temple is glorified by the 6th-9th century Vaishnavie Alvars (Tamil saint poets) in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham . 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 present temple with goddess seated in padmasana was once known as Kaamakotta Nayaki shrine, where Lalitha Tripura Sundari has settled in this temple after the destruction of the demon called Bhandasura. This ancient temple got mentioned in Perunaraatrupadai, an ancient Tamil sangam literature which praises the renowned sangam era king Thondaiman Ilanthiraiyan who ruled whole Thondai mandalam during sangam era with Kanchipuram as capital city. The original golden statue was seen with two hands adorning a parrot in her right hand is called as Bhangaru Kamakshi was replaced with the current panchaloha idol to avoid ruins of invasion. Now the golden goddess is residing in the West masi veedhi of Tanjavore with aseparate shrine, as escorted by Shyama Shastri.
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.
Origin
In the Sangam text Perumpanatruppadai, the temple has been mentioned as Kamavelkottam along with Kumarakottam, which was then ruled by the Sangam-era King Thondaiman Ilandiraiyan.[citation needed] 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.