Kumbakonam

A small temple-town in the state of Tamil Nadu, in South India. It is famous for the large number of temples within the town and in the nearby areas. It is called temple city sometimes for this reason. It is primarily a market town for the predominantly agriculture-based villages surrounding it. It is also well known for the festival of Mahamaham which is celebrated every 12 years. Next Mahamaham is in 2004.

The great Indian mathematician Ramanujan and the 'silver-tongued orator' Srinivasa Sastry (he has the distinction of having corrected Sir Winston Churchill's English!) are two well known people form this town.