Sri Adhikesava Perumal Temple

Temple tradition connects the site to Krishna's slaying of the demon Keshi, giving the presiding deity his name Kesava: Adhikesava, "the foremost Kesava." Nammalvar is credited with mangalasasanam here, contributing eleven pasurams that place Thiruvattaru within the same devotional wave that produced hymns for Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the other Kerala Divya Desams.

The temple's link to the Travancore dynasty is what most distinguishes it historically: before Maharaja Marthanda Varma's 1750 Thrippadidanam formally transferred the family's devotional allegiance to Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, it was this temple at Thiruvattaru that served as the ruling family's own deity temple, a role reflected in the scale and antiquity of its endowments.

The temple has a long-recorded history under the Ay dynasty and later the Travancore rulers, and is particularly noted for its large reclining image of Vishnu, traditionally described as being built up from an amalgam of 108 sacred and herbal materials known as Katu Sarkara Yogam, the same general technique associated with the still-larger image at Padmanabhaswamy Temple, and one of only a small number of Divya Desams where the main image is constructed this way rather than carved from stone.

Uniquely among the 108 Divya Desams, this temple has no separate temple tank of its own. Ritual bathing instead uses the natural confluence of the Kothai, Pahrali and Thamirabarani rivers immediately beside the temple, a distinctive arrangement that ties the site's ritual geography directly to the surrounding landscape rather than to a constructed tank.