Kanyakumariकन्याकुमारी

Kanyakumari (कन्याकुमारी) — the virgin maiden — is the goddess of land's end, enshrined at the extreme southern tip of the Indian peninsula where the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean meet. The town and district of Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu take their name from her, and her small seashore temple has drawn pilgrims for a very long time indeed: a shrine of the virgin goddess at this cape is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek merchant's account of the first century CE.

The legend

Tradition tells that the goddess, in the form of a young maiden, performed austerities to win Shiva as her husband. But the demon Banasura could be slain only by a virgin girl, and the gods could not allow the marriage to take place. The story goes that the wedding, fixed for the auspicious midnight hour, was frustrated by a false cockcrow before dawn; Shiva's procession turned back, and the goddess remained unwed. In her grief and fury she destroyed Banasura, and stayed at the cape as its eternal guardian. The uncooked rice and grains prepared for the abandoned wedding feast, tradition says, became the many-coloured sands of the shore.

The shrine

In the Kumari Amman temple the goddess stands as a young girl holding a rosary, her face turned towards the sea. Lore holds that the diamond of her nose-ring once gleamed so brightly that sailors mistook it for a beacon, and the temple's east door is by custom kept closed. Pilgrims bathe at the bathing ghat where the three waters mingle before entering her presence.

Legacy

Kanyakumari belongs to the deep South Indian tradition of the powerful virgin goddess, her unspent marriage transformed into protective strength. Standing at the symbolic full stop of the subcontinent, she marks the point where the sacred geography of India ends — and, for the pilgrim who has come the length of the land, is completed.