Sri Lokanatha Perumal Temple

This temple is grouped with four others (including Thirukkannapuram and Thirukkannamangai) as the five Panchakanna Kshetrams associated with Krishna, the group of Kaveri-delta shrines whose very name, Kannan, is the Tamil form of Krishna. Thirumangai Alvar's ten pasurams in praise of this temple give it a solid standing in the fixed Naalayira Divya Prabandham canon, and the temple's own founding legend (built at the exact spot where a butter idol of Krishna is said to have come alive) gives Thirukkannankudi one of the more distinctive origin stories among the Panchakanna group.

Temple tradition holds that the sage Vashishta once fashioned an idol of Krishna out of fresh butter and worshipped it with such intensity that the butter never melted, even in the heat. Pleased but wishing to test his devotee further, Krishna took the form of a mischievous child and began eating the butter idol himself. When Vashishta gave chase, the child fled to where other sages sat in penance beneath a Magizha tree; those sages caught the boy and bound him to the tree trunk, at which point Krishna revealed his true, divine form and blessed everyone present. At the sages' request, the Lord agreed to remain permanently at that spot, and the site took its name, Kannankudi, directly from Kannan, the Tamil name for Krishna.

Beyond the legend, the temple is traditionally dated to the late Chola period, around the 9th century CE, with later architectural contributions recorded under the Vijayanagara kings and the Madurai Nayaks, a building history shared with several other Divya Desams along the Nagapattinam coast.

The temple follows Dravidian architectural conventions, fronted by a five-tier Rajagopuram and enclosed by a granite wall that takes in all of the shrine buildings along with the temple's water bodies. The sanctum itself is crowned by the Utpala Vimanam, the same vimana form found at neighbouring Thirukkannamangai, reflecting the shared building traditions of the Panchakanna Kshetram group.

Daily worship follows the customary schedule of the Panchakanna Kshetrams.