Adi Kumbeswarar Temple

Deity

Adi Kumbeswarar and Mangalambika

Where

Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu · 10.96N 79.38E

Usual hours

6 am – 12.30 pm, 4 pm – 8.30 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Guru

Visited for

Where the pot of amrita came to rest and the town got its name. Masi Magam and the twelve-yearly Mahamaham at the tank are its days; the base of the Navagraha circuit of the delta.

The sthala purana has it that at the end of a great dissolution the seeds of creation were sealed in a pot of amrita, and the pot floated on the waters until it came to rest at this place.

Sivan, in the form of a hunter, is said to have shot the pot with an arrow. The nectar that spilled made the tanks of the town — the Mahamaham tank and the Potramarai among them — and Sivan gathered the sand and the nectar together and made a linga of it with his own hands. That linga is the moolavar, and the town takes its name from the pot: kumbha.

Adi Kumbeswarar is a Tevaram Paadal Petra Sthalam. The present fabric is largely Nayak-period rebuilding over older Chola work, which is true of most of central Kumbakonam.

The Mahamaham festival is held at the town’s great tank once in twelve years, when Jupiter is in Simha and the Magha star falls in the month of Masi. It is one of the largest religious gatherings in south India.

The eastern gopuram is tall and the way in is a long covered corridor lined with shops, so the temple arrives suddenly.

The Navaratri mandapam holds a single block of stone carved with the twenty-seven nakshatras and the twelve rasis — worth a minute for anyone who reads a panchangam.

Mangalambika has a large shrine of her own. The Potramarai tank is immediately outside, and the Mahamaham tank, with its sixteen small mandapams around the edge, is a short walk away.

Masi Magam at the Mahamaham tank is the day of the year, and the twelve-yearly Mahamaham is the one people plan a journey around.

Thai Poosam, Maha Sivaratri and the Panguni Brahmotsavam fill the temple; so does the steady traffic of families beginning or ending the Navagraha circuit, which is usually based in this town.

Also called

Adi Kumbeswarar Temple

Period

Chola origins, largely rebuilt in the Nayak period

Reaching it

The temple is in the middle of Kumbakonam, about 2 km from Kumbakonam railway station. Kumbakonam is roughly 40 km from Thanjavur and 90 km from Tiruchirappalli.

• Sarangapani Temple, Kumbakonam 0 km · Vaishnava
• Airavatesvara Temple, Darasuram 2.5 km · Saiva
• Swamimalai Swaminatha Swamy Temple 5.5 km · Murugan
• Thiruvalanchuzhi Kapardeeswarar Temple 5.6 km · Ganapathi
• Thirunageswaram Naganathaswamy Temple 5.9 km · Saiva
• Patteeswaram Durgai Amman Temple 5.9 km · Sakta (Amman)

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

A contribution carries a name, so a reader knows whose account it came from. That is why it needs an account, and it is the only reason.

Sign in and add yours