With the Sharad Navaratri festival in honour of the Devi just over across India, I found I was thinking a lot about Kamakshi Devi in Kanchipuram and would like to share some interesting facts related to her as a follow-up to the festival.
According to Indian metaphysics, Kanchipuram to the Northeast of Chennai, about an hour’s drive from the Tamil Nadu capital, is the sole ‘mokshapuri’ or ‘salvation city’ in South India. The other six are well north of the old boundary between the north and the south, the holy river Narmada.
To set the larger picture, the Indian subcontinent is called Bharatavarshe Jambudvipe, ‘the land of the Bharatas, the island of the rose-apple’, further detailed as Aa Setu Himalaya, meaning ‘from the southernmost seas to the northernmost mountains’. The seven mokshapuri or salvation cities identified across it in ancient times still rule the Hindu world—Kashi or Varanasi, Avantika or Ujjain, Ayodhya, Haridwar, Mathura, Dwaraka and Kanchipuram.
The ancient Pallava capital, Kanchipuram, was even older than the Pallava dynasty. It was mentioned as far back as 300 BCE by Panini, the Sanskrit grammarian, and eulogised in the Tamil Sangam or academy era epics of the second century CE in the Silappadikaram, written by the Jain prince Ilango Adigal and in its sequel, Manimekhalai, written by his Buddhist friend, the merchant, poet and critic Shattan.
No less than Mahakavi Kalidasa, the renowned Sanskrit poet of the fourth century CE in Ujjain, had praised Kanchipuram. His Sanskrit encomium once known all over India goes: ‘pushpeshu jaati, purusheshu Vishnu, nareeshu Rambha, nagareeshu Kanchi’, meaning ‘the best among flowers is the parijat or ‘night-flowering jasmine’; among men, it is Vishnu; among women, the apsara Rambha; among cities, Kanchi’.
So, the northern region of present-day Tamil Nadu had been culturally celebrated since very old days, with Kanchipuram, Mahabalipuram, Sriperumbudur and important sites like Kartikeya’s historic ancient temple in Tiruttani as the pearls in its diadem.
In this salvation city, the Kamakshi temple, dated variously to the Pallavas and the Cholas, is the physical and cultural hub, and the only space focused on the Ambal or Devi, the sacred feminine energy. It is one point of a Shakti energy-triangle encapsulated in the local prayer-phrase ‘Kanchi Kamakshi, Madurai Meenakshi, Kashi Visalakshi’.
This ancient monument lives on through this concept of sacred geography at ‘the court of the love-eyed goddess’ (Kamakshi) and its animating principles of ‘mokshapuri’ (salvation city), ‘shakti sthalam’ (space/sanctuary of the goddess) and ‘ghatika sthanam’ (seat of learning).
The role of Adi Sankara in its importance is evidenced by the Sri Chakra or Shakti Yantra, the mystic mandala at the feet of the goddess that he is held to have installed.
The role of the Shankaracharyas of the Kamakoti Peetham has been immense in sustaining the temple’s activities. The beautiful layout and architecture are testimony to the love and care invested in the temple down the ages by devotees.
Paeans like the Panchasati by Muka Kavi of legend testify to the energy zone of the Kamakshi temple. Muka Kavi is said to have lived in the fifth century in Kanchipuram. He was dumb from birth. He used to go to the Kamakshi temple and prostrate before the goddess every day and do kainkaryam (odd jobs of service in the temple).
One day, he suddenly started composing poems that are still recited. He wrote 500 verses in praise of Sri Kamakshi in five satakas. Sataka means ‘100 verses’. In the first sataka, known as Arya Sataka, he says: Siva, Siva Pasyanti Samam/ Sree Kamakshi Katakshitah Purushah/Vipinam Bhavanamimitram, Mitram/ Loshtam cha Yuvathi Bimoshtam (Great men, blessed by the kataksha or benevolent gaze of Kamakshi, regard with equal unconcern forest and palace, foe and friend, a piece of stone and the captivating lips of damsels. What a wonder, Siva, Siva).
This verse was made famous by the 68th Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati (1894-1994). In a talk he gave, he said, “In this verse, the poet indicates the test by which we can find out whether a person has been purified by the benevolent look of the Divine Mother or not. If he has received the grace of the Mother, he will be free from anger, enmity, desire and fear, and such a man will be attracted by nothing, desire nothing, hate nothing and fear nothing. God alone can work this miracle of ridding us of all passions.”
In the 20th century, Lakshmikant Sharma wrote the Kamakshi Suprabhatam, the recording of which is played at dawn in the temple. He was asked to compose this paean as a wake-up song for the Devi by Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati. The result was so beautiful that it became part of the temple’s daily ritual, especially after M S Subbulakshmi rendered it in a melodious chant. It is easily found on YouTube if you wish to hear it.
This suprabhatam is perfect in its emotional logic. In the well-known Venkatesha Suprabhatam addressed to the Lord at Tirupati, the refrain is ‘tava suprabhatam’ meaning ‘good morning to you’. In the Kamakshi Suprabhatam, the words go ‘kuru suprabhatam’, meaning ‘give us a good day’, demonstrating the close mother-child relationship we have with the Devi, demanding from her by right.
Since Southern cinema has a whole genre of films on the theme of bhakti or devotion, it was inevitable that Kanchi Kamakshi too had a film made on her. Sri Kanchi Kamatchi was a 1978 Tamil film, starring Gemini Ganeshan. The film begins by introducing a character called Meenakshimaindan and through him, retells some of the miraculous doings of Kanchi Kamakshi on behalf of her devotees. This too is available on YouTube.
Renuka Narayanan
(Views are personal)
(shebaba09@gmail.com)