Kamakshi Amman Temple, Mangadu

01Tapas in the mango grove

Mangadu means the mango forest. The temple’s katha says that Devi Parvati, having playfully closed Shiva’s eyes and plunged the worlds into darkness, came to earth to do penance. Here she stood on one foot on the point of a needle in the midst of five fires, the panchagni, until Shiva told her to go to Kanchipuram, where he married her as Ekambareswarar. The heat of her tapas, the katha continues, scorched the land around, and Adi Shankaracharya installed an Ardhameru Sri Chakra, made of eight herbs, to cool it. Kumkum archana is done to the Sri Chakra, not to a murti.

02Six weeks of visits

The temple’s custom is to visit on six successive Tuesdays or Fridays, often with a lemon offered at each visit, praying for marriage, a child or a way out of trouble. A small panchaloha murti of the Devi in tapas stands in the sanctum, and near the temple is the Vellishwarar shrine of Shiva, where Shukracharya is said to have worshipped. The suburb has grown round the temple, and on Fridays the queue runs out into the street.

The life of this place