Place · Shiva temple · India
Kumbeshwarar, Kumbakonam
Also known as Kumbakonam, Kumbeshwarar, Kumbeshwarar — Kumbakonam
The Kumbeshvarar Shiva temple at Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu — one of the most important Shiva temples in the Kaveri delta, giving the city of Kumbakonam its name. The temple's foundation legend holds that the Shiva linga at the sanctum was made from the nectar (amrita) that spilled out of the kumbha (pot) when the pot of divine nectar overflowed at the end of the great flood — making the temple's linga one of the few in India that is of amrita-derived origin. The temple's foundation is 7-century Pallava; the current structure is 10-century Chola with major 13-century Chola additions and 16-century Vijayanagara expansion. The temple's 12-year Mahamaham festival (last held 2016, next in 2028) draws over 5 million pilgrims for a single day of mass bathing at the Mahamaham tank. The temple is managed by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious Endowments Department.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 10.960, 79.380
Connections (2)
- Site adjacencySrinivasa with Nachiyar, Kumbakonam
Srinivasa with Nachiyar and Kumbeshwarar are both great temples of Kumbakonam town, standing a few streets apart along the Mahamaham tank and the Kaveri. They are neighbouring landmarks of the same Chola temple city rather than one inside the other.
- FromSrinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in 1887 at Erode but grew up at Kumbakonam in the Kaveri delta, where he attended Town High School and the Government College. The town's Sarangapani temple and the Mahamaham tank are the landscape of his childhood; his mother Komalatammal's tutelage in Namagiri Thayar devotion at the nearby Namakkal temple remained the religious reference point of his short life. He returned to Kumbakonam dying of tuberculosis in 1919 and died there in April 1920.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Kumbakonam”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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