Temples & Legends of Tamilnadu
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Temples & Legends Of India

KUMBAKONAM

She followed Mahavishnu with great anxiety and anger. But as soon as Lakshmi entered this holy place, her angerdisappea red and she turned to be the embodiment of pity and patience. She realised that the timehad come for her rejoining Maha- vishnu. She took the form of a child and was lying in the thousand-petalled lotus in the Hema Pushkarani. After many years of penance, Mahavishnu granted his darsan to Devi Lakshmi and married her.

Hema Pushkarani which was probably been named after the sage Hema, when the Lord blessed him with his darsan on its bank and accepted and his daughter as his consort, is the most sacred of all the tanks here and measures 361 feet by 285 feet. Floating festival is being conducted in this tank every year in the month of Masi (February-March). The tank is also known as Lakshmi Teertham and Amudavani (Amudam means nectar and Vani Means tank, the tank whose waters have been sanctified by drops of nectar at the time of the deluge).

Anyone who wants to take a purifactory dip in this tank should first offer worship at the shrine of Hema Rishi. Then he should pray to other deities guarding the tank, the Parijata tree which is the sthala vriksham here and then to Lord Sarangapani. Now the devotee can take a bath in the tank chanting mantras. A dip in the tank purifies both the soul and the body from all sins and ailments and paves the way for getting eternal bliss in the next birth. The following story may be narrated in this connection.

Long long ago there was a Brahmin by name Sudama who had illegal intimacy with his step-mother and so died by a stroke of lightning. After seven births, he was again born as a Brahmin and was suffering from some chronic disease. As advised by great saints, he took a dip in this tank and at last attained salvation. The lady was born as a cow in her 9th birth at Kumbakonam and was shot down by a hunter one day. The dead cow fell into the waters of the holy tanks as a result of which it got salvation.

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About Kumbakonam
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