Sri Govindaraja Perumal Temple

Thiruchitrakoodam's significance rests substantially on a single, well-documented episode: temple history and tradition hold that the 11th–12th century Sri Vaishnava acharya Ramanuja personally carried this temple's utsava (processional festival) idol away from Chidambaram to protect it during a period of sectarian conflict, and that the same idol remains enshrined today as the Govindaraja Perumal of Tirupati, one of the very few Divya Desams whose original festival deity is now permanently housed at a different temple altogether. This makes Thiruchitrakoodam and Tirupati's Govindaraja shrine historically linked in a way almost unique among the 108.

Beyond this episode, the temple's location is itself significant: Chidambaram is one of the rare temple towns where a major Vishnu Divya Desam and one of Hinduism's most important Shiva temples (the Nataraja/Chidambaram Temple, renowned across India for its Ananda Tandavam bronze and its association with the akasha or "space" element) share the same town, illustrating the coexistence of Vaishnava and Shaiva devotional traditions at a single pilgrimage site.

Chidambaram's Vishnu shrine has stood alongside its far more famous Shaiva counterpart for centuries, glorified independently by Thirumangai Alvar in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham. Temple tradition holds that during a period of sectarian tension and persecution of Vaishnava worship, Ramanuja intervened directly to safeguard the utsava idol, carrying it northward for safekeeping; the idol's journey is traditionally said to have ended at Tirupati, where it remains enshrined as that temple's own Govindaraja Perumal.

As a result, the Chidambaram temple that exists and is worshipped today primarily houses the sanctum (mulavar) deity rather than the original processional form, a detail that distinguishes its ongoing ritual life from many other Divya Desams where mulavar and utsavar have never been separated.

The temple's tower is known as the Saathviga Vimanam. Structurally and administratively it sits within or adjacent to the much larger Chidambaram Nataraja temple complex, one of the largest and most architecturally significant temple complexes in Tamil Nadu, though the Govindaraja shrine retains its own distinct sanctum and ritual identity as a separate Divya Desam.

Given its location within the wider Chidambaram temple town, the Vishnu shrine's festival calendar sits alongside the much larger Shaiva festival calendar of the Nataraja temple (including Natyanjali (a major classical dance festival) and Aani Thirumanjanam) though the Govindaraja shrine also observes its own Vaishnava festival occasions tied to the wider Divya Desam tradition.

Daily worship follows the customary schedule of the Cuddalore-belt Divya Desams, conducted independently of the adjoining Nataraja temple's own extensive ritual calendar.