"A wonderful and large temple located near ashtabhujakara Perumal temple. Unique feature of this temple is that the Perumal is in reclining posture on the left side,unlike in other temples where he is reclining on right side usually. A must visit!!!"

TirthaVihari

"Yathothkari Perumal is believed to have appeared for Saraswati and Thirumalisai Alvar. Six daily rituals and three yearly festivals are held at the temple. The temple houses a rare image of Ranganatha recumbent on his left hand unlike other temples where he is recumbent on his right.

Once there was an argument between Saraswati, the consort of Brahma and Lakshmi on superiority. They went to Indra, the king of celestial deities. Indra judged Lakshmi as superior and not satisfied with his argument, Saraswati went to her husband, Brahma. He also chose Lakshmi to be the superior one. Saraswati was unhappy with the decision and decided to stay away from Brahma. Brahma did a severe penance praying to Vishnu and did an ashvamedha yagna. Saraswati was still angry that the yagna, which usually is done along with consorts was done alone by Brahma. She tried to disrupt the penance, but Vishnu interfered with his serpent Adishesha. Saraswati, on seeing Vishnu in her path, accepted her defeat and subsided in the form of river Vegavathi. As Vishnu interfered the path of the river, it was termed Vegavani, then as Vegannai and gradually corrupted to Vekka. The presiding deity thus got one of his names, Vegasetu. As per historian Nagaswamy, the temple was called Vehha meaning Vishnu leaning as a slanted slope, which gradually became vekka.

Once sage Bhargava had a son through Kanakangi, a celestial dancer. The boy was stillborn and was not fully developed during his birth. Kanakangi left his son under bushes and left to the celestial world. It is believed that the child was a divine incarnation of one of Vishnu's weapons, the Chakra. By the grace of Vishnu and Lakshmi, the baby became alright and began to cry. A childless farmer couple who were passing by took up the child, named him Sivavakkiyar and started rearing him. Once the boy reached adulthood, he was sceptical about choosing between Shaivism and Vaishnavism. He was defeated in arguments by Pey Alvar. He became a devotee of Vaishnavism and the disciple of Pey Alvar. Sivavakkiyar was also called Bhakthisarar and later as Thirumalisai Alvar.

Thirumalisai had a disciple by name Kanikkannan. He also had an old lady serving him - Thirumalisai prayed to the presiding deity of the temple and by the grace of Bhujangasayana Perumal, the old lady became a beautiful young lady. The Pallava king who was ruling the region at that time got attracted by the lady and married her. With time while the king was growing older, the lady remained young. He called up Kanikannan and ordered to sing praise of him so that he also turned young. When he refused, the king ordered Kanikannan to be banished out of the country. Kanikannan explained this to his master Thirumalisai, who prayed to Bhujangasayana Perumal. When the king heard this, he ordered the three to be sent of the country, which they obliged. When the three left Kanchipuram, it was engulfed in darkness. Realising his sin, the king worshipped Bhujangasayana Perumal to return along with his two devotees. Since the presiding deity obliged to his devotees wishes, he is called Yathothkari Perumal. Yathothka means as requested and kari denotes the person who accomplishes the task. One of the Alvars, poet saints of the 7-10th century, Poigai Alvar was born at this temple."

Balu R

"This was the first time I was visiting this temple a few months ago and it literallly blew my mind. The reclining deity of Perumal (Shayana Kolam) was just awe-inspiring as though it was made of Bronze, that was the colour of the deity. Also in an unconventional fashion Perumal was reclining right to left. Normallly it is always left to right, i.e the head is at our left side. At his feet was Devi Saraswathi, another untoward thing as normally it is either Bhudevi or SriDevi or Prahlad or Garuda or any of the Saints. The Andal here is probably the most beautiful Andal one can find anywhere. At Andal's shrine we were told that even the priests from Srivilliputtur agreed that the Andal here was way more attractive than the Andal at their place. Considered the 51'st Divya Desam of Lord Vishnu, this is a temple not to be missed in Kancheepuram."

Subash S L