Kanchipuram, the City of Thousand Temples, still lives mostly by weaving
Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu is famous for towering temple gateways, halls with a thousand pillars and the silk saris that carry its name. It served as the Pallava capital for centuries, drew Buddhist and Jain scholars, and today most of its workers earn their living at the loom.
Its Tamil name joins kanchi and puram, the city of kanchi flowers, though Sanskrit writers offered other readings, one being a girdle wrapped around the earth. The city sits on the Vegavathy and Palar rivers, covers about 36 square kilometres and had an estimated population of 232,816 in 2011. Under the British it was known as Conjeeveram.
References reach deep into the past. The grammarian Patanjali mentions it, Sangam-era Tamil works describe it, and the 4th-century poet Kalidasa praised it as the best of cities. Between the 1st and 5th centuries it was a seat of advanced Buddhist and Jain learning, and it was long called a place of learning. Historians still argue over whether it was an early Chola capital.
The Pallavas made it their capital and fortified it with ramparts, moats and planned streets. Their king Narasimhavarman I defeated the Chalukya ruler Pulakesin II at Vatapi, and Narasimhavarman II built landmark shrines such as the Kailasanathar and Vaikuntha Perumal temples. The Chinese traveller Xuanzang, visiting in 640, found a city about six miles round whose people were known for courage, piety and love of learning. Later rulers followed in succession: the Cholas from about 890, then Pandyas, a brief Hoysala garrison, and the Vijayanagara Empire from 1361 to 1645, whose first inscriptions record reviving temple rituals abandoned during earlier invasions.
Religion remains central. In Vaishnava tradition it is one of seven pilgrimage sites that grant spiritual liberation, and 15 of the 108 sacred Vishnu temples praised in a classic Tamil devotional collection stand here. It is also important to Shaiva and Shakta worshippers and houses the Kanchi matha, a monastery its followers trace to the philosopher Adi Shankara. The national government has named it a heritage city.
Source: Kanchipuram
