About Mahamaham and Kumbakonam

Mahamaham (also written Mahamagam) is a Hindu bathing festival held at the Mahamaham tank in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. It takes place about once every 12 years. The next one is expected in March 2028 (dates to be confirmed by TN HR&CE). See how to reach Kumbakonam, the temples connected with the festival and upcoming temple festivals.

Mahamaham

The tradition

According to tradition, the waters of India's sacred rivers gather in the Mahamaham tank at the time of the festival, and pilgrims bathe there to be purified.

The 12-year cycle

The festival is timed by an astrological alignment that recurs about once every 12 years.

The tank and its wells

The tank contains 20 wells, known as theerthams. The sixteen mandapams (pavilions) around its edge were built under the Thanjavur Nayaks.

The 2016 festival

About 4 million people visited Kumbakonam during the 2016 festival, sometimes called the Southern Kumbh Mela. Large crowds are expected again, so plan your travel early.

Kumbakonam

Kumbakonam, also known as Kudanthai, is one of the oldest towns in the Kaveri delta of Tamil Nadu. It lies between two rivers, the Kaveri to the north and the Arasalar to the south, in Thanjavur district. Its name, roughly "the pot's corner", comes from the tradition of Brahma's pot (kumbha), which is said to have come to rest here after a great flood; the Mahamaham festival commemorates that story. Over the centuries the town has been called Kudamukku, Kumbam and Baskarakshetram, and British records spelled it Coombaconum. It is known as the "Temple Town": around 188 Hindu temples stand within the city limits alone, alongside many mathas (monasteries). Kumbakonam has been ruled in turn by the early Cholas, the Pallavas, the Mutharaiyars, the medieval and later Cholas, the Pandyas, the Vijayanagara Empire, the Madurai and Thanjavur Nayaks and the Thanjavur Marathas, before passing to the British. Each left its mark on the town's temples, music, scholarship and trade. Its crafts are still well known: bronze casting at nearby Swamimalai, Thirubuvanam silk weaving, brass and copper vessels, betel leaf from the surrounding fields, and Kumbakonam degree coffee.

History of Kumbakonam and Mahamaham

1. c. 300 BCE – 300 CE

   Kudavayil of the Sangam age

   People lived in the region as early as the Sangam period. Kumbakonam is identified with the ancient town of Kudavayil, where the early Chola king Karikala held court. Some scholars also link it with Kudavayir-kottam, the prison where the early Chola king Kocengannan held the Chera king Kanaikkal Irumporai.

2. 7th – 8th century

   Temples in the Tevaram hymns

   Kumbakonam is linked with Malaikurram, a Chola seat in the 7th century. In the same era the Tamil saint poets praised its Shiva temples, including Adi Kumbeswarar, Nageswaraswamy and Kasi Viswanathar, in the Tevaram hymns.

3. 859 CE

   The battle of Kumbakonam

   According to the Sinnamanur copper plates, the Pandya king Srimara Srivallabha defeated an alliance of the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Western Gangas at Kumbakonam.

4. 9th – 12th century

   The medieval Cholas

   The region grew in importance under the medieval Cholas. Nearby Pazhaiyarai served as a Chola capital in the 9th century, and the Nageswaraswamy Temple, attributed to Aditya Chola, dates from this time. In the 12th century Rajaraja Chola II built the Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

5. 12th century

   Mahamaham

   The nine rivers in the Periya Puranam

   The Periya Puranam, a 12th-century Tamil classic, records the tradition at the heart of Mahamaham: that nine river goddesses gather at the tank on the festival day to worship Shiva and cleanse their own waters. Carvings of Shiva with the nine rivers can still be seen at the gateway of the Kasi Viswanathar Temple on the tank's northern bank.

6. 1290

   The Pandyas

   As Chola power declined, the Pandyas took control of Kumbakonam.

7. 14th century

   The Vijayanagara Empire

   When Pandya power collapsed in the 14th century, Kumbakonam was conquered by the Vijayanagara Empire.

8. 1524

   Mahamaham

   An emperor at the festival

   The Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya came to Kumbakonam for the Mahamaham festival and bathed in the tank. His royal pilgrimage is recorded in inscriptions at Nagalpuram and at the Shiva temple in Kuthalam, the earliest firm evidence that the festival has been celebrated for more than five centuries.

9. 1535 – 1673

   The Madurai and Thanjavur Nayaks

   The Nayaks ruled the town for well over a century. Their minister Govinda Dikshitar built the Ramaswamy Temple and laid out the market street linking it to Chakrapani Temple. After the fall of Vijayanagara in 1565, poets, musicians and scholars settled in the town and shaped its culture.

10. 16th century

    Mahamaham

    Sixteen pavilions and gifts of gold

    Govinda Dikshitar, minister to the Thanjavur Nayak ruler Raghunatha Nayak, built the sixteen stone pavilions (mandapams) around the tank, each housing a Shiva lingam. An inscription on the pavilion on the northern bank records the tulapurusha-dana, in which a king was weighed against gold that was then given away in charity.

11. 1673 – 1799

    The Thanjavur Marathas

    The Marathas annexed Kumbakonam in 1673. In the 1780s the Kanchi matha moved its seat here for a time after Hyder Ali's invasion of Kanchipuram, and Tipu Sultan's invasion of 1784 caused heavy losses to trade and farming that took decades to recover from.

12. 1799 – 1947

    British rule and the “Cambridge of South India”

    In 1799 the Maratha ruler Serfoji II ceded Kumbakonam to the British East India Company. The town became a leading centre of Vedic scholarship and Western-style education in the Madras Presidency, earning the name “Cambridge of South India”. It hosted the Tanjore district court from 1806 to 1863, became a municipality in 1866, and was linked by railway to the ports of Madras, Tuticorin and Nagapattinam in 1877. City Union Bank was founded here in 1904 as Kumbakonam Bank Limited.

13. 19th century

    Mahamaham

    Festival crowds on record

    From the 19th century, the large crowds drawn by Mahamaham are documented in administrative records and travellers' accounts.

14. 1992

    Mahamaham

    Mahamaham of 1992

    The 1992 Mahamaham drew about one million devotees to Kumbakonam.

15. 2016

    Mahamaham

    The Southern Kumbh Mela

    The most recent Mahamaham was celebrated on 22 February 2016. An estimated four million devotees came over its ten-day period, and the town arranged temporary transport and bathing ghats spread across Kumbakonam. It is often called the Southern Kumbh Mela.

16. 2021

    A city corporation

    Kumbakonam was upgraded from a municipality to a municipal corporation on 24 August 2021.

17. Next

    Mahamaham

    Mahamaham 2028

    The next Mahamaham is expected in March 2028 (dates to be confirmed by TN HR&CE).