The City of the Goddess
Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu is one of the seven *sapta moksha puris* — the seven cities where liberation is said to be accessible. At its heart is the Kamakshi temple — one of the great Shakti Pithas of South India.
Kamakshi means "she whose eyes are full of love" (kama = desire, love; akshi = eyes). She is the form of the goddess that rules through desire rather than through fear or force.
The Sugarcane Bow
Kamakshi holds a sugarcane bow — the same bow held by Lalita Tripura Sundari. The sugarcane bow is the bow of the mind, and the five flower-arrows it fires are the five sense objects.
The teaching is subtle: the goddess does not destroy desire but transforms it. She holds desire in her hand — it is her instrument. The question is what the bow is aimed at.
When desire is aimed at the transient, it brings suffering. When the same desire is aimed at the divine — when the arrow is released toward the Lord of the universe — it brings liberation.
Adi Shankaracharya's Visit
The great philosopher Adi Shankaracharya (8th century CE) came to Kanchipuram and found that Kamakshi was not installed in her traditional seat. Legend says she had gone out of bounds — her power was untamed and wild.
Shankaracharya installed a Sri Chakra at her feet and contained her power within the structure of Sri Vidya worship. From that time, Kamakshi has been worshipped as one of the supreme forms of Lalita Tripura Sundari.