Scores of tourists who come to Kanniyakumari to visit the Bhagavathi Amman temple, Vivekananda memorial and the newly-created 133-foot Thiruvalluvar statue, miss out on the Guganatheeswarar temple.
Tucked away from the national highway, surrounded by shops, and altered by modern-day construction materials, the temple, which is over 1,000 years old, had a direct connection with Rajendra Chola, the son of King Rajaraja I, who built Gangaikonda Cholapuram. But what makes it more interesting is that it has received grants from a woman, who is referred to as the pendatti of Rajendra Chola in the inscriptions.
“Today, the word p endatti may mean wife. But it was used in the inscriptions only to refer to a maid or helper. Even today, we prefer the word manaivi and not pendatti to refer to a wife, though the latter has gained currency,” explained A.K. Perumal, folklorist and the author of the book Thenkumariyin Kathai (The history of Kanniyakumari).
