09/05/2026
The Bhagavathy Amman Temple — we went there the day before to see where it was and formulate a plan for the next morning. It was a 4:30 a.m. start. The line gets long here, even though it is not considered one of the main temples for devotees. It is a place people go to if they know.
I loved the story behind this temple. The energy of Amman, the Virgin Goddess, resides here. Her nose stud shines so brightly that they close the eastern door of the temple because it is said sailors once mistook the light from her nose stud for a lighthouse and crashed. Apparently, that eastern door, which I saw, only opens a few times a year for auspicious events.
Legend has it that Devi Kanya Kumari’s exquisite diamond nose ring was a gift from a queen of the Chola dynasty. The queen, renowned for her devotion and love for the goddess, sought to adorn the idol with a jewel as radiant as Kanyakumari’s divine beauty.
When we lined up, there were quite a few people, but it was not a long wait. There were many people who were going from site to site around India and this was a site for the to visit. Our guide told us that the line can be very long but we were just lucky. He waited outside for us.
This was a very ancient temple said to be around 3,000 years old and you could certainly feel it the moment you entered and see it, there was nothing modern here. You are not allowed to take a photo of her, which I am actually really glad about, because some things are simply meant to be felt in the moment, not viewed and reviewed over and over again.
I cannot describe the heat that radiated from her statue. Thousands of years of energy have built there, amplified by every devotee who has come from far and wide to receive her blessings. Anything that holds energy like that becomes intensified over time.
The story goes that Kanyakumari Temple, situated at the confluence of three seas, is one of over 50 high-energy shrines in India, and that this particular temple holds the spine of the goddess. I found this symbolism fascinating because the spine is the backbone - the structure that holds everything upright, the central pillar of strength.
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