Mokshapuri Kanchipuram Land of Temples & Tirthas

Preface
Satyavrtashetram, one of the ancient holy cities of South India is well known as the “mokshapuri and temple town. It is a holy Dhamam, abode of the God and Godess. A place is made holy by the presence of Lord and his devotees. Holy place is a platform to express the divine where performance of spiritual activities gets more benefit and made easy to bestow liberation to anyone even celestial abodes. Such places whatever spiritual activities are performed get thousand fold insult. One very prominent story that runs practically across this holy city and also the reason of the existence of many temples is that the Lord Brahma performed yean. It is said that Brahma (Ka) worshipped (anchi) Lord Vishnu and performed yajna at this place, which is why the city was given the name Kanchipuram (puram meaning ‘city) Since then, Kanchipuram is one of the seven most significant pilgrim centres of Hinduism.

It is served as the best centre (nagashukanchi with developed urban features and sangam of grat scholar, philosophers, traders, travellers with rich political legacy before beginning of the Common Era. It has continuous cultural history from the very ancient past to the present. The temple city had made significant contribution not only to the all religious (Jaina, Buddha, Saiva, Vaishnava and Saktha) life of the people, but also served as the nucleus around which the socio-cultural life of the people moves. It is housing a glorious architectural heritage with spiritual significance. It is one of the best known pilgrimage centres in Tamil Nadu for Sarva, Vaishnava and Shakti devotees to get relief from all sins. To know more about the glory of the heritage city in Tamil Nadu, the present volume is helpful to many ways to all pilgrims, historians research scholars and so on.

This work is a collective venture of many who eamestly involved in this task along with the author. The author expresses his deep gratitiale to Dr. Sumanta Rudra, Dean, and Bhaktivedanta Research Centre (URC) for initiation and financial support. Without their support and encouragement the book, would not have been brought out with in a short span.

I am much obliged to De Ketu Ramachandrasekhar for involving in the preparation and going through the manuscript in detail. The present quality of the book is much owe to Mr. Vijay Sundararaman lyer and entire team members for the documentation, laborious work with much paving and patience. Me Vijay Sundararaman lyer needs a special mention for his invaluable recording, documentation and gathering data from different sources, 1 express my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. G. Yathurandan for his invaluable assistance in the field of photography. His expertise and guidance have been instrumental in capturing the essence of our subject matter. I am immensely thankful to Mr. Manikandan Kesavan for his remarkable aerial photography, which provides readers with a captivating bind’s-eye view of the temples. His stunning visuals bring a unique perspective to the narrative we extend our sincere appreciation to Mr. Ravi Chandran Anantha Narayana and Mr. G. Subramaniyan, the esteemed curators of the “raganshukanchi” You tube Channel, for their valuable contributions to this book. Their infusion of culturally relevant photography, particularly festival pictures, has greatly enhanced its content.

I extend my gratitude to Me Yogesh Kumar and Mr. Sanjay for their remarkable contribution in creating meticulous maps using GIS (Geographic Information System). Their expertise has ensured accurate and detailed representations of the temple locations and surrounding areas.