Place:Kanyakumari, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kanyakumari; "The Virgin Princess" (also known as Cape Comorin) is a town in Kanyakumari District in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is the southern tip of Indian subcontinent. The southernmost town in mainland India, it is sometimes referred to as 'The Land's End'.

A popular tourist destination in India which is famous for its unique sunrise and sunset point , the Thiruvalluvar Statue and Vivekananda Rock Memorial off the coast, and as a pilgrimage centre. Lying at the tip of peninsular India, Kanyakumari is bordered on the west, south and east by the Laccadive Sea. It has a coastal line of  stretched on the three sides.

The town is situated  km south of Thiruvananthapuram city, and about  south of Nagercoil, the headquarters of Kanyakumari District.

On the shores of the town is a temple dedicated to Goddess Kanyakumari (the virgin Goddess), after which the town is named. Kanyakumari has been a city since the Sangam period and has been referred to in old Malayalam literature and in the accounts of Ptolemy and Marco Polo.^[1]

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Etymology

The place derives its name from the goddess Kanya Kumari, considered to be the sister of Krishna, a goddess is believed to remove the rigidity from the mind, to whom women pray for marriage. In 1656, the Dutch East India Company conquered Portuguese Ceylon from the Portuguese East Indies, and the name eventually corrupted to "Comorin" and was called Cape Comorin during British rule in India. The city was later renamed Kanyakumari by the Government of India and the Government of Madras.

Legend

According to a Hindu legend, Kanya Devi, an avatar of Parvati, was to marry Shiva, who failed to show up on his wedding day. Rice and other grains meant for the wedding feast remained uncooked and unused.^[2] The uncooked grains turned into stones as time went by. Some believe that the small stones on the shore today, which look like rice, are indeed grains from the wedding that was never solemnised. Kanya Devi is now considered a virgin goddess who blesses pilgrims and tourists who flock to the town. Her temple located in Kanyakumari is a Shakti Peetha or a holy shrine in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. According to another Hindu legend, Hanuman dropped a piece of earth as he was carrying a mountain with his life-saving herb, Mrita Sanjivani, from the Himalayas to Lanka (Sri Lanka) during the Ramayana War. This chunk of earth is called Marunthuvazh Malai, literally "hills where medicine lives"This is said to be the reason for the abundance of unique native medicinal plants in the area. Marunthuvazh Malai is located near Kottaram about from Kanyakumari town on the Kanyakumari-Nagercoil highway. The sage Agasthya, who was an expert in medicinal herbs, is believed to have lived around this site in ancient days. It is believed to be the reason so many medicinal herbs are found on the hills near Kanyakumari. There is an ashram on the middle of the hill, which tourists visit (after a short trek from the base of the hill), both to visit the Ashram and also to take a glimpse of the sea near Kanyakumari a few kilometres away.

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