Kanchipuram Travel Guide: Ekambareswarar, Varadharaja Perumal & Silk Looms

One of India's Seven Mokshapuri Sacred Cities

Situated 75 km southwest of Chennai along the Vegavathi river, Kanchipuram is celebrated as one of the seven holy cities (Sapta Puris) in Hinduism capable of bestowing Moksha (spiritual liberation). Renowned historically as a premier center of Sanskrit learning, Buddhism, and Jainism, Kanchipuram is divided into Shiva Kanchi and Vishnu Kanchi, home to hundreds of magnificent living temples.

Prime Temples of Kanchipuram

• Ekambareswarar Temple (Earth Lingam): One of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams representing the element Earth (Prithvi). The vast temple features a towering 59-meter southern rajagopuram and a sacred 3,500-year-old mango tree beneath which Goddess Parvati worshipped an earthen Shiva lingam.
• Kamakshi Amman Temple: One of the supreme Shakti Peethas in South India where Adi Shankaracharya consecrated the sacred Sri Chakra in front of the presiding deity to pacify her fiery cosmic energy.
• Varadharaja Perumal Temple: The grandest Vaishnavite shrine in Kanchi, famous for its 100-pillared hall carved with chains cut entirely out of solid stone and the holy submerged fig-wood idol of Athi Varadar raised once every 40 years.
• Kailasanathar Temple: The oldest surviving stone temple in Kanchipuram, built in the early 8th century by Pallava King Rajasimha, decorated with 58 intimate sandstone sub-shrines and exquisite fresco remnants.

Kanchipuram Pure Silk Handloom Heritage

Known as the "Silk Capital of India", Kanchipuram is home to thousands of generational weavers crafting genuine Kanchipuram silk sarees using heavy mulberry silk threads intertwined with pure gold and silver zari. Tamil Nadu DMC coordinates private B2B visits to authentic master weaver cooperatives where visitors observe jacquard pit-loom techniques.