Sri Chandrasooda Perumal Temple

Temple tradition holds that Shiva once tested his consort Parvati's devotion by setting her aflame as she meditated beneath the temple's sacred mango tree; when she called on Vishnu for help, he is said to have seized Shiva's own crescent moon (Chandra) and used its cooling power to douse the flame, giving the deity worshipped here the name Chandrasooda, "one who bears the moon." It is a distinctive story in that it casts Vishnu not as the central figure of his own temple's founding myth but as an intervening rescuer within a Shaiva narrative, reflecting how closely the two traditions are woven together at this particular site.

The mango tree at the centre of the legend is itself a living landmark: Ekambareswarar's sthala vriksham (temple tree) is popularly said to be roughly 3,500 years old, with its four branches traditionally described as bearing four different varieties of mango, a detail devotees often visit specifically to see, independent of either temple's ritual calendar.

Nilathingal Thundam is a notable example of a Vishnu Divya Desam housed inside a major Shiva temple complex rather than standing as an independent structure, the Ekambareswarar Temple itself dates to the Pallava period, with its present form substantially rebuilt under later Chola rule. Kanchipuram's standing sacred to both Vaishnava and Shaiva tradition alike is unusually explicit here: there is no separate shrine for Parvati within the Ekambareswarar complex as is customary at other Shiva temples, with local tradition instead holding that the goddess at the nearby Kamakshi Amman Temple serves as Ekambaranathar's consort, the same Kamakshi Amman Temple that itself houses another Divya Desam, Thirukkalvanur.

As a shrine within a much larger Shiva temple complex, Chandrasooda Perumal does not have an independent gopuram or outer walls of its own; its architectural identity is bound up with its position near the Ekambareswarar Temple's celebrated mango tree, within the wider complex's Dravidian-style courtyards.

The shrine observes six daily rituals and two major yearly festivals, of which Vaikunta Ekadashi in the Tamil month of Margazhi (December–January) is the most prominent, consistent with the wider Vaishnavite calendar shared by Kanchipuram's other Divya Desams. The Saturdays falling within the Tamil month of Purattasi (September–October) are also observed here with particular devotion, drawing steady crowds through that month.

Because the shrine sits inside the much larger Ekambareswarar complex, its festival days often coincide with, or run alongside, the host temple's own major observances such as Panguni Uthiram, giving visitors an opportunity to take in both temples' festivities in a single outing.

In an arrangement unusual among the Divya Desams, rituals at the Chandrasooda Perumal shrine are performed by Saivite priests rather than the Vaishnava (Sri Vaishnava) priests customary at other Vishnu temples, a reflection of its unique position inside a major Shiva temple complex, shared only with two other Divya Desams (Govindaraja Perumal and Thirukalvanur) similarly housed within Shiva temples. Darshan at the Chandrasooda shrine typically follows visitors' darshan of the main Ekambareswarar sanctum, as most pilgrims cover both within the same temple visit.