कामाक्षी-माहात्म्यम्

About this stotra

Twelve verses on the glory of Kāmākṣī and Her shrine, from the twenty-third chapter of the Kāmākṣī Vilāsa.

They begin by marking out Tuṇḍīra-maṇḍala, the land around Kāñcī, bounded by the Svāmi-puṣkariṇī tīrtha, the eastern sea, the Pinākinī river and Śilāhrada. At its centre, between the Kampā and Vegavatī rivers, lies the Kāma-koṣṭha, where Kāmākṣī dwells. Her image there is the Devī’s root form (mūla-vigraha): in Kāñcī there is no other image of the Devī. Her seat is the navel of the earth, shaped as the kāma-kalā of the world, and it is called Kāmakoṭi because whatever good is done there bears fruit a crore-fold.

The verses then tell what the shrine gives:

• Japa of one’s mantra in the Kāma-koṣṭha brings the fruit of a crore of repetitions, and leads to the world of liberation.
• Staying there for even half a moment frees one from all sins.
• Circling the Kāma-koṣṭha and the bilābhra of Śambhu below the Gāyatrī-maṇḍapa brings, step by step, the merit of gifting a cow about to calve.
• Worshipping Kāmākṣī on Her birth-day through the great inner path gives the fruit of a crore of pūjās, and even one act of service to Her leads to kaivalya.

The closing verse promises that one who reads these twelve verses on rising, at the time of the morning bath, gains every fruit they describe.