குமரக்கோட்டம் சுப்பிரமணிய சுவாமி கோயில்Kumara Kottam Subramanya Swamy Temple

Sthala Mahātmyam

Kumara Kottam, in the heart of Kanchipuram, enshrines Murugan uniquely as Brahma-Shasta, seated and holding a kamandalu (water-pot) and a rosary of rudraksha rather than the Vel, the teacher who once imprisoned Brahma for failing to expound the meaning of Om and himself revealed the Pranava. Sited between the Ekambareswarar (Shiva) and Kamakshi Amman (Parvati) temples, Kumara Kottam completes the sacred Somaskanda arrangement of Kanchipuram, with the divine child Murugan placed between his parents. The temple is forever linked to Kachiyappa Sivachariar, a priest here who composed the Kandha Puranam, the great 10,346-verse Tamil epic of Murugan's glory; tradition holds the Lord himself corrected the manuscript nightly, and the pavilion where it was first recited still stands in the complex. Rebuilt in its present form in 1915 over a shrine of Pallava antiquity, it is one of Kanchipuram's foremost pilgrimage centres. Chief festivals include Skanda Sashti, Thiru Karthigai, monthly Krithigai and the Brahmotsavam.