Kailasanathar Temple @ Kanchipuram

Nestled in Kanchipuram, a small town near Chennai of Tamilnadu is one of the Grandest and oldest Hindu temples of India.

The temple dates to 8th Century and was built by one of the Pallava Kings - Narasimha Raja . For the uninitiated, Pallava dynasty is one of the powerful dynasties of the south indian rulers.

The architecture of the temple is strongly indicative of the Pallavas. It has many firsts to its credit. To begin with the most unique thing about the temple is its Vimana as most of the resources, including the Wiki Entry, would point one to. On to this day that is the 5th of August 2007, this is the best of information I could find about the uniqueness of the temple on the world wide web:)

But a visit there and I end up finding lot more things which are unpublicized. In addition to being a place of worship, the temple served as a great place of defense for the army. The locals believe so and the architecture confirms it. Closer look at the walls and one can see that there are places for people to hide inside the walls. One has to see this to believe it. Soldiers could be hidden all over the wall and an attacker or intruder can not see anything of it....Amazing!!!Truely amazing......all the more considering the fact that we are talking of 8th Century architecture.



This is how the temple walls look for anyone walking around the temple. Look at the right side of the picture for the wall in discussion. There are no indications of any hiding places....One just sees the intricately carved walls!!! For the ones with an eye for the art it is truely a feast and for the rest it is just yet another wall.


Now look at this picture onto the right....Notice anything?

This is indeed the same wall that was shown in the previous picture. A careful look will show gap behind the pillar. This space behind which is not easily noticed, can comfortably shelter couple of men. This is the most unique aspect of the temple according to me.

The temple also boasts of many Natarajar sculptures. Shiva, in various forms adorns the entire temple. Kailasanathar temple is primarily dedicted to Shiva and hence the sculptures. The main deity is Shiva in the form of Lingam. The Lingam by itself is huge, probably second only to the Thanjavur temple which has the biggest Lingam.

You can check out some more pictures of the temple here.

The main sanctum sanctorum aka Garbagriham has a tunnel surrounding the deity. It is believed that if you go for a pradakshinam(a circumferential walk around the sanctorum with ardent devotion) here you can free yourself from the cycle of birth and death. Getting out of the tunnel is analogous to coming out of mothers womb in terms of difficulty and hence such a simile here apparently. This is what the priest at the temple informed us. My personal experience is that the young can make the pradakshinam with reasonable ease but the elderly have to watch out!!

The temple is currently maintained by the Archeological Society of India and hence is more of a preserved monument than temple. And so, if you are one of those who wish to marvel at the sculpture in temples and the architecture but hate to visit crowded places, this is just the kind of place. However, make sure that you are not visiting there on the day of Mahashivaratri - for it is too crowded only on that day given that it is a Shiva temple.

How to get there:
Kanchipuram is around an hours drive from Chennai. So you can take a flight/train to Chennai. Stay put there and drive to kanchipuram from there.

More info about getting around there here.


Photos courtesy: Arvind