KANCHIPURAM

The Sacred City of Goddess Kamakshi : Legends, Temples, Sacred Traditions and the Divine Heritage of Kanchi

von Vijay Soma

304 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

There is a city in South India where a goddess, not a god, has always ruled.Kanchipuram is one of Hinduism's seven sacred cities said to grant liberation - but unlike Ayodhya or Mathura, it was never the birthplace of an avatar or the setting for someone else's story. At its heart sits Kamakshi: not a consort waiting beside a more famous god, but Adi Parashakti herself, the primordial power said to have arisen from the fire of consciousness to save creation, and to have chosen - of her own will - to remain at Kanchi forever after.This book follows her full story. It traces her origin in the ancient Lalitopakhyana and her place among the fifty-one Shakti Peethas; the geometry of the Sri Chakra installed before her image and the Srividya tradition built around it; and the arrival of a young philosopher named Adi Shankaracharya, who is remembered as finding her worship in crisis - and who left behind the composed, seated goddess still worshipped today, along with an unbroken monastic lineage that continues to this hour.It walks the temple itself, shrine by shrine - the formless Lakshmi hidden on a sanctum wall, the goddess Varahi who once commanded Lalita's armies, the small daily ritual in which Kamakshi's own procession still pauses at Shankaracharya's shrine to take symbolic leave of him before entering the streets. It steps beyond her walls to Ekambareswarar's ancient mango tree, to the untouched eighth-century perfection of the Kailasanathar temple, and to Varadaraja Perumal's wooden deity, raised from a temple tank once every forty years before crowds in the millions. It follows the festival calendar that brings the whole city into motion, and the silk, scholarship, and diaspora devotion that carry Kanchi's memory into the present day - from Tamil Nadu to a refugee-built temple in Germany.Written with equal parts devotion and rigor, Kanchipuram draws on Puranic literature, temple inscriptions, and current scholarship alike - and is honest, throughout, about where tradition and documented history agree, and where they still leave real questions open. The result is a portrait of a city and a goddess that neither flattens the mystery nor apologizes for it.For readers of sacred geography, Hindu philosophy, South Indian temple history, or anyone planning a pilgrimage to Kanchipuram, this is the fullest single account of why this city, and this goddess, have mattered for over a thousand years - and still do.

• Reihe: Independently published
• ISBN: 9798175678087
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 19.09.2026
• Größe: 229 x 152 mm
• Verlag: Independently published
• Herausgegeben von: Vb Darshan