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Kumbakonam is one of the oldest towns in Tamilnadu and is famous for its Mahamaham festival. In the 7th Century it was the Capital of Chola Kings. Kumbakonam, the famous temple town of South India, is picturesquely located amidst the two rivers, Cauvery & Arasalar. Kumbakonam is one of the ancient temple town picturesquely located amidst the two rivers Cauvery and Arasalar. In olden days it was called Thirukudamookku and it is also popularly called as Kudanthai now. It is popular for the Divine Tank in the heart of the city where Mahamagam Festival takes when lakhs of pilgrims from all over Tamil Nadu converge here to take dip in the tank at the auspicious hour. All the deities of the temples in and around turnout here to have dip at that time too. This festival falls in the month of Masi [Feb-Mar] on Magam Star Day. The town reached the peak of its property during the British Period and it was a prominent centre of European education and Hindu culture and it assumed the name as the ‘Cambridge of South India’.

KUMBAKONAM Hindus believe this to be the place where a water pot (kumba) of amrita – the ambrosial beverage of immortality – was washed up by a great deluge from atop sacred Mount Meru in the Himalayas. Shiva, who just happened to be passing through in the guise of a wild forest-dwelling hunter, for some reason fired an arrow at the pot, causing it to break. From the shards, he made the lingam that is now enshrined in Kumbeswara Temple, whose gopuras today tower over the town, along with those of some seventeen other major shrines. A former capital of the Cholas, who are said to have kept a high-security treasury here, Kumbakonam is the chief commercial centre for the Thanjavur region.