PM Modi inaugurates Kashi Tamil Sangamam: What is the ancient connect between Kashi and the Tamil land

We take a look at the ancient link between Kashi and Tamilakam.

A legendary connection

Legend has it that King Parakrama Pandya, ruler of the region around Madurai in the 15th century, wanted to build a grand temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. He travelled all the way to Kashi to bring back the lingam for his temple.

While returning, he stopped to rest under a tree. When he tried to continue his journey, the cow carrying the lingam refused to budge from its spot. Parakrama Pandya understood this to be the Lord’s wish, and installed the lingam there, a place that today is known as Sivakasi. For devotees who could not visit Kashi, the Pandyas also built the Kasi Viswanathar Temple in what is today Tenkasi in southwestern Tamil Nadu.

The connection between Kashi and the Tamil region is deep and old, said Dr Vinay Kumar of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). “Much later, another king, Adhivir Ram Pandyan, after returning from a pilgrimage to Kashi, constructed another Shiva temple in Tenkasi in the 19th century,” Dr Kumar said.

There’s more: “Sant Kumara Gurupara from Thoothukudi district had negotiated with the princely state of Kashi to get a place for the consecration of Kedarghat and Vishvesvaralingam in Varanasi. He also composed Kashi Kalambagam, a collection of grammar poems on Kashi,” Dr Kumar said.

The Kashi Tamil Sangamam

This year, around 1,400 dignitaries from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will visit Varanasi for the event, participating in a number of cultural exchanges and exhibitions, showcasing art, music, handloom, handicrafts, cuisines and other distinctive products from Tamil Nadu and Varanasi.

The first batch of the Tamil delegation, comprising a group of students from Tamil Nadu, reached Varanasi on Sunday to attend the 15-day Sangamam. Six more groups comprising teachers, professionals, spiritual leaders, farmers and artisans, writers, traders, and businessmen are also scheduled to arrive in the city.

In last year’s event, around 2,400 people from Tamil Nadu were taken to Varanasi in groups for visits that lasted eight days and included, besides an immersive local experience, trips to Ayodhya and Prayagraj.

“The broader objective is to bring the two knowledge and cultural traditions (of the North and South) closer, create an understanding of our shared heritage and deepen the people-to-people bond between the regions,” the official note for the event, organised by the Ministry of Education, says.

Educationist Chamu Krishna Shastry, chairman of the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti under the Ministry of Education that proposed the Sangamam, said in 2022, that since ancient times, higher education in Southern India was not considered complete without a visit by the scholar to Kashi.

“The connection between the two centres of knowledge (Kashi and Kanchi) is evident in the similar themes in literature, and the presence of the name Kashi in every village in Tamil Nadu,” Shastry said. “Kashinath is a popular name in Tamil Nadu.”

Besides the Kasi Viswanathar temple in Tenkasi, there are hundreds of Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu that bear the name of Kashi — there are some 18 of them in the area around Chennai alone, Shastry said.

“People from Rameswaram would take a dip in the Koti teertha (in the temple) before visiting Kashi for darshan; and they would bring back (Ganga) water from Kashi for abhiseka at the temple in Rameswaram. Only this would complete their pilgrimage at a time when it took six months to travel between Kashi and Rameswaram,” he said.

Shastry also mentioned the connection between the traders dealing in silk saris and textiles from Bananas and Kanchipuram, and architectural, culinary, and other kinds of connections. “We have just started the process of discovery and reconnection,” he said.

This is an updated version of an explainer published last November.