Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.251

c7.251

*Kāñcīpura* (Kāñcī or Kāñcīpura):—*Vide Conjeevaram*.—It was an important place of pilgrimage from very early times. The *Bhāgavatapurāṇa* (X. 79, 14) refers to it as a city. Patañjali mentions it in his *Mahābhāṣya*, II, p. 298. The *Skandapurāṇa* (Ch. I, 19–23) mentions it among other places as holy. The *Yoginitantra* (1. 17) also mentions it. In the Drāviḍa country there existed a city called Kāñcī where lived a rich merchant’s son named Śaktikumāra who was anxious to find out a virtuous wife. For this purpose he went to the Siri country on the right bank of the river Kāverī (*Daśakumāracaritam*, p. 153). Kāñcīpura finds mention in the Mayidavolu Copperplate Inscription of Śivaskandavarman (cf. *E.I.*, XXV, Pt. VII, 318). Kāñcīpura mentioned in the Aihole Inscription was conquered by Pulakeśin. The Tālaguṇḍa Inscription of Śāntivarman also refers to Kāñcī. It is known as Kāñcīpeḍu. It is Conjeevaram, the capital of Drāviḍa or Coḷa on the river Palār, 43 miles south-west of Madras (cf. Mahābhārata, Bhīṣmaparva, Ch. IX). Śiva Kāñcī and Viṣṇu Kāñcī form the western and eastern parts of the city. There is also Jaina Kāñcī, called Tirupparutti-kunram. Of all the temples at Conjeevaram the Kāmākṣī temple is the most important. In this temple the only peculiarity is the Cakra placed in front of the deity. This city is said to have been founded by Kulottunga Coḷa on the site of a forest, called Kurumbhar-bhūmi, afterwards called Toṇḍamaṇḍala. It was one of the capitals of the ancient Coḷas and the capital of the later Pallavas (vide S. K. Aiyangar, Ancient India and South Indian History and Culture, Vol. I, 1941, pp. 520ff.). It was one of the notable centres of Buddhist learning. The geographer Ptolemy (McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, pp. 185-86) refers to the kingdom of Malanga, ruled by Bassaronaga, which, according to some, was Kāñcī. According to Ptolemy, Malanga was the capital of Arouarnoi (Arvarnoi) (McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, p. 185). Kāñcīpura contains the temple of Kailāsanāthasvāmin built in the Pallava style of the 6th century architecture. There is another temple by the name of Rājasimhavarmeśvara temple. Besides there are numerous small temples both Śaiva and Viṣṇu (Hultzsch, S.I. Inscriptions, I, pp. 1, 2, 3, 19, 29, 77, 113, 116, 118, 120, 123, 125, 139, 140, 141, 145, 146, 147).