Kanyakumari - Temples and Legends

Almost all our family trips in India include a visit to a temple. With innumerable Gods and Goddesses and countless legends, these trips are quite interesting in addition to being spiritual.

On our recent trip to Kanyakumari, a town at the southern-most tip of India, we visited a few temples, out of which the first one was quite crowded. A crowded place is not in my son's league and he starts whining and complaining. If we can come up with a story or facts about a place, highlighted with what interests him, the visit becomes a breeze. And many times, he even asks us to visit the place again! As we walked through the crowded streets to the temple of Kanyakumari Devi (an Indian Goddess), complaints started pouring in from our little guy.

To Kanyakumari Devi temple

The temple was also crowded and boys have to take off their shirts before entering the inner sanctum. All this added to the little guy's frustration. Thankfully, there were many display boards with legends about the temple. According to a legend, the beautiful Devi was about to get married to the God (Lord Shiva) who resided at nearby Suchindram temple. However, the marriage could not take place at the scheduled time as the Devi had to stay back and fight an Asura (evil being). It seems the marriage was intentionally interrupted by Sage Narada who knew the Devi would lose her power to fight the Asura if she got married. The tricky Narada had sent back the wedding procession by making the bridegroom party think that the auspicious moment for marriage had passed. When she heard the wedding was off, Devi was quite upset . In her fury, she scattered all the decorations including colorful powders arranged for the ceremony. It seems these powders are what made the multi-colored sand one finds around Kanyakumari beaches.

When we entered the inner sanctum, the first thing we noticed on Devi's idol was the bright nose ring.  It seems many ships had used this as a reference point because it used to be visible from a great distance. As we walked around the temple, we saw a wooden green parrot that was Devi's vahana (celestial vehicle). We also noticed that most devotees were wearing green clothes. Green seemed to be Devi's favorite color.

As much as the legend made this temple visit interesting, it also made the next temple visit on our itinerary a pleasant experience. Now, the kids really wanted to go and see the God at Suchindram! As we headed to watch the sunset, there were no more complaints, only requests to hear the story over and over again.

Contrary to the first temple, Suchindram temple was not crowded. In spite of being tired after the long day, we felt very relaxed after this temple visit. The main "Gopuram" or entrance to the temple was huge. The pillar-lined walkway around the temple was impressive. One of the pillars was actually a collection of pillars that make "SaptaSwara" (seven sounds) of classical Indian music. We spent some time around these special pillars, putting our ears on each, tapping, and trying to figure out the sounds coming out.

As we were walking back, our little guy got all excited and kept grabbing my hands saying he saw Kanyakumari Devi's parent. I was surprised and asked him how he knew Devi's parent. He pointed out what he saw. Actually, he had said he saw Devi's parrot! There was a big green wooden parrot on one side of the courtyard. He was thrilled to have made a connection from the story he had heard.

We headed out and clicked couple of pictures outside the temple. Photography was not allowed inside the temple.

At the entrance to Suchindram temple

After the visit to the temple

Next day, we visited another small temple on Vivekananda rock built around the footprints of Kanyakumari Devi. A man at the door to the temple was narrating the story behind those footprints. It seems the Devi had come to this rock to do a penance to win over Lord Shiva's mind and marry him. She had stood on one foot for the penance.The kids thought they had to pray on one feet in this temple and were trying hard to balance themselves!

Temple on Vivekananda rock

Many years later, Swami Vivekananda had also come to the same rock to meditate. In those days, when this was not a tourist spot, it would have made a good place for meditation. Even with the crowd of visitors, it still was a very peaceful place.