The Pallava capital
Kanchi is mentioned in early Tamil literature and in Sanskrit sources from the early centuries CE. It became the capital of the Pallava dynasty, which ruled the northern Tamil country from about the fourth century and reached its height between the sixth and ninth. A Sanskrit verse often quoted in the city places Kanchi first among cities, as jasmine is first among flowers. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited around 640 and described a large city with many Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples and a substantial Jain community.
The city was a great centre of learning, with a ghatika, a college of Brahmin scholars. The Buddhist logician Dignaga is said to have come from near Kanchi, and later traditions connect Bodhidharma, the founder of Chan Buddhism in China, with the Pallava royal family.
The temples
Kanchipuram is known as a city of a thousand temples. The Kailasanatha, built by the Pallava king Rajasimha around 700, is one of the earliest great structural temples of south India: a sandstone shrine with a pyramidal vimana inside a courtyard lined with small shrines, its walls covered with sculpture of Shiva. When the Chalukya Vikramaditya II took Kanchi in about 740, he spared the temple and left an inscription recording his respect for it, and its plan was taken north to Pattadakal. The Vaikuntha Perumal temple, built under Nandivarman II in the eighth century, has panels that narrate the history of the Pallava dynasty.
Under the Cholas and Vijayanagara the great temples of Shiva as Ekambareshvara and Vishnu as Varadaraja were enlarged with tall gopurams and pillared halls, and the Kamakshi Amman temple is one of the major shrines of the goddess. The city is traditionally divided into Shiva Kanchi and Vishnu Kanchi.
Religion
Kanchipuram is counted among the seven sacred cities, the moksha-puris, that grant liberation, alongside Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Ujjain and Dwarka. It was praised by the Nayanars and Alvars. The Kanchi Kamakoti matha, which claims foundation by Shankara, is a major Hindu monastic institution, though its claim to be one of the original seats is disputed by the other Shankara mathas. Tiruparuttikunram, on the edge of the city, preserves Jain temples with paintings of the Vijayanagara period.
Later history
After the Pallavas the city came under the Cholas, then the Vijayanagara empire, the Nawabs of the Carnatic and the British. Its handloom silk saris, woven with heavy gold borders, are among the most valued in India and are protected by a geographical indication.
Further reading
- Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. A History of South India. Oxford University Press, 1955
- Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988
- Champakalakshmi, R. Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India. Oxford University Press, 1996
See also
- Pallava dynasty — The Pallavas ruled the northern Tamil country from Kāñcīpuram for six centuries, fought the Chalukyas for control of the peninsula, and began the tradition of stone temple building in the south at Mahabalipuram.
- Chalukya-Pallava rivalry — The Chalukya-Pallava rivalry was a roughly two-century contest for dominance in the Deccan and Tamil country between the Chalukyas of Badami and the Pallavas of Kanchipuram, marked by repeated invasions of each other's capitals between the 7th and 8th centuries CE.
- Chola Empire — The Chola Empire ruled the Tamil country from 848 to 1279, at its height controlling southern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and produced the Bṛhadīśvara temple and the finest bronze sculpture made anywhere in the world.
- Vijayanagara Empire — Vijayanagara was the last great empire of southern India, founded on the Tungabhadra in 1336, ruling most of the peninsula for two centuries until its defeat at Talikota in 1565, and leaving the ruined city at Hampi.
- Hindu temple architecture — The architectural tradition of Hindu temple building on the Indian subcontinent, spanning the Nagara style of the north, the Dravida style of the south, and the hybrid Vesara style of the Deccan, all grounded in the sacred geometry of the Vastu Purusha Mandala.
This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.