Chennai to Kanchipuram Tour Package

Kanchipuram sits about 72 to 75 km from Chennai, close enough for one full day and old enough to hold more than a thousand years of temple building. This is one of the seven moksha-puris of India, the seven sacred cities where Hindus have long believed the soul can find release. On this one day trip you leave Chennai in the early morning, reach Kanchipuram in about two hours, and spend the day with five of its greatest temples: Kamakshi Amman, Ekambareswarar, Varadaraja Perumal, Kailasanathar and Kumarakottam. You also keep time for the pure silk saree woven here for centuries, and the famous Kanchipuram idli. We plan the day around the temple timings, not against them, so you are never standing at a closed door in the afternoon heat.

Why Kanchipuram is worth a full day from Chennai

People call Kanchipuram the city of a thousand temples, and for once the nickname is fair. It served as the royal capital of the Pallavas and stayed important under the Cholas and the Vijayanagar kings, and every one of those dynasties left temples behind. It is also counted among the seven moksha-puris of India, the seven cities held to grant liberation, which is why pilgrims have walked here for well over a thousand years. For a traveller based in Chennai, the best part is simple: all of this is only about 72 to 75 km away, so you can see the finest of it and sleep in your own bed the same night.

There is one thing every honest guide must tell you first. Most temples in Kanchipuram close in the middle of the day, roughly from noon to about four in the afternoon. A day trip that leaves Chennai at nine in the morning, as many packages still suggest, reaches Kanchipuram with barely an hour before the shutters come down. That is why we start early. When you leave Chennai by about seven, you get the full, cool morning inside the temples, you keep the closed midday hours for the one temple that stays open, for lunch and for silk, and you still reach home in good time.

The five temples, and how they differ

Kanchipuram is really two towns joined together. The eastern half is Vishnu Kanchi, home to the great Vaishnava temple of Varadaraja Perumal. The western half is Shiva Kanchi, where Ekambareswarar, Kamakshi Amman, Kumarakottam and Kailasanathar stand within a short drive of one another. Knowing this saves you an hour of doubling back.

Kamakshi Amman Temple is the heart of the town. The Government of Tamil Nadu district record calls it an important Sakthi Sthalam, the Nabisthana Ottiyana Peetam, and notes that Kanchipuram has no other Parvati shrine apart from this one, which is unusual for a Shiva city. Tradition holds that Adi Shankara worshipped here and placed the Sri Chakra before the Goddess to calm her fierce form, and the temple remains tied to the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham to this day. The Goddess sits in the Padmasana posture, the lotus seat, inside a sanctum reached through four entrances, and there is a temple tank outside that keeps the courtyard quiet.

Ekambareswarar Temple is the Shiva temple of the earth element, one of the Pancha Bhoota Sthalams, the five temples that stand for the five elements. Its Rajagopuram rises to about 59 metres, among the tallest temple towers in Tamil Nadu, and you see it long before you reach the gate. Inside are two things you should not miss: the Aayiram Kaal Mandapam, the hall of a thousand pillars built by the Vijayanagar kings, and the old mango tree in the inner courtyard, which the temple holds to be around 3,500 years old, with four branches said to give fruit of four different tastes. The inner walls carry rows of Siva lingams, counted in the district record at 1,008.

Varadaraja Perumal Temple, over in Vishnu Kanchi, is the grand Vaishnava temple and one of the 108 Divya Desams sung by the Alvars. The official record describes a complex of about 23 acres with nineteen vimanams and around four hundred pillared halls. Look up in the corridor around the sanctum for the two famous lizard figures on the ceiling, one sheeted in gold and one in silver, which pilgrims touch for the removal of past faults. The hundred-pillared hall carries fine carving, and in the temple tank rests the Athi Varadar, a wooden idol of the Lord that is brought out for public darshan only once in forty years. It was last shown in 2019, so the next occasion is a long way off, but the story is worth hearing while you stand by the tank.

Kailasanathar Temple is the oldest of them all and, for many, the most moving. The district record credits it to the Pallava king Rajasimha, known also as Narasimhavarman II, in the 7th century, with the later addition finished under his son. The foundation is granite and the superstructure is carved from sandstone, which is why the surface looks soft and worn and human in a way granite never does. This is not a busy worship temple like the others. It is a quiet monument, protected now, with a row of small shrines around a central sanctum and carvings of Shiva in many forms. Because it is an open monument and not a working temple with a long midday break, this is the one place you can visit in the early afternoon while the rest of the town rests.

Kumarakottam Temple is dedicated to Lord Murugan, the son of Shiva and Parvati. It stands about half a kilometre north-west of the bus stand, set neatly between Ekambareswarar and Kamakshi Amman, which is why devotees say the son sits between the father and the mother, the Somaskanda form. It is smaller than the great temples and takes little time, so it fits easily into the morning between the other two.

What to eat, and the idli that started in a temple

Do not leave Kanchipuram without eating a Kanchipuram idli. It is not the soft white idli of a Chennai breakfast. This one is coarse and firm, seasoned with black pepper, cumin, dry ginger and cashew, and traditionally steamed in a deep mould as an offering in the temples, which is why locals also call it kovil idli, the temple idli. Several plain, clean vegetarian eateries in the town serve it, along with the usual dosa, pongal and full South Indian meals on a banana leaf.

Shopping for a real Kanchipuram silk saree

Kanchipuram silk is woven from pure mulberry silk with real zari, and a good one lasts a generation. It is also widely copied, so buy with care. The safest route is a weavers cooperative society, where the price and the purity are controlled, or an established showroom in the town. Look for the Silk Mark label, which certifies pure silk, and if you want to test the zari yourself, check the thread at a loose end of the border: in true zari the core thread shows red. Buy from the town, keep the bill, and you carry home the one souvenir from Kanchipuram that only Kanchipuram can give.