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Kamakshi Amman Temple, Kanchipuram
ABOUT
The Kamakshi Temple is an ancient Hindu Temple dedicated to Kamakshi, one of the forms of Goddess Parvati. It is located in the historic city of Kanchipuram, near Chennai, India The Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, the Akilandeswari temple in Thiruvanaikaval near Tiruchirappalli and this Kamakshi are the important centers of worship of Parvati, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The Temple was most probably built by the Pallava kings, whose capital was Kanchipuram.The Image of the main Deity, Kamakshi, is seated in a majestic Padmasana, an yogic posture signifying peace and prosperity, instead of the traditional standing pose. Goddess holds a sugarcane bow and bunch of flowers in the lower two of her arms and has a pasha (lasso), an ankusha (goad) in her upper two arms. There is also a parrot perched near the flower bunch. There are no other Parvati temples in the city of Kanchipuram, apart from this temple, which is unusual in a traditional city that has hundreds of traditional temples. There are various legends that account for this fact. One of them according to Kamakshivilasa is that Goddess had to absorb all the other shakthi forms to give a boon to Kama, the Vedic angel of desire. Another legend attributes it to the Raja Rajeswari pose of the deity that signifies an absolute control over the land under Her control. Legend has it that Kamakshi offered worship to a Shivalingam made out of sand, under a mango tree and gained Shiva's hand in marriage.
