Sri Parthasarathy Perumal Temple

The temple takes its popular name from Krishna's role as Parthasarathy (charioteer to the Pandava prince Arjuna during the events of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita) a distinctive and comparatively rare form of Vishnu among the 108 Divya Desams, most of which enshrine Vishnu in one of the four standard classical postures rather than as a named character from an epic episode. Thirumangai Alvar sang ten pasurams of mangalasasanam here, among the more heavily glorified totals in the Divya Desam corpus, and directly attributes the temple's construction to the reigning Pallava king in his verses, a rare case where a Divya Desam's founding is recorded in devotional poetry roughly contemporaneous with its construction, rather than in inscriptions or later tradition alone.

The temple is generally dated to the 8th century CE, built during the reign of the Pallava king Dantivarman, and carries inscriptions in both Tamil and Telugu from this period, a bilingual epigraphic record that is itself notable among Chennai-region Divya Desams. The area's name, Thiruvallikeni, is popularly explained as "sacred lily pond," referring to the Kairavini Saras tank (also known as Alli Keni) that still exists near the temple; the modern English name Triplicane is understood to be a colonial-era anglicisation of this same Tamil name. The temple continued to receive patronage through the Chola and Vijayanagara periods, layering many centuries of continuous religious use onto its original Pallava-era core.

The temple follows classical Dravidian architecture at urban scale, with the presiding deity Venkatakrishna Perumal (worshipped here specifically in his Parthasarathy form) enshrined alongside Rukmini in the Ananda Vimanam sanctum. A detail devotees and scholars alike note is that the deity is depicted with a moustache, consistent with Krishna's role as an active charioteer and warrior-companion in the Mahabharata rather than a purely serene, seated Vishnu form, and is shown holding only a conch, without the chakra that typically accompanies Vishnu's other iconographic forms, an iconographic choice tied directly to the specific Mahabharata episode the temple commemorates.

Unusually for a Divya Desam, the complex houses five distinct forms of Vishnu under one roof rather than a single presiding deity alone: alongside Parthasarathy Krishna, separate shrines within the temple enshrine Ranganatha (reclining on Adishesha, facing east, with Brahma seated on his navel), Rama (accompanied by Bharata, Shatrughna, Lakshmana and Sita, in a shrine facing south), Yoga Narasimha, and Gajendra Varadaraja. This concentration of five separate Vishnu forms in a single temple complex is one of the features that most distinguishes Parthasarathy Temple from the great majority of Divya Desams, which typically enshrine only one principal form of the deity.

The temple's grand Brahmotsavam for Parthasarathy is held annually in the Tamil month of Chittirai (April–May), spanning multiple days of street processions, special abhishekams and car-festival rites befitting one of Chennai's most prominent Vishnu temples. In the following month of Vaikasi, the temple separately observes Sri Varadarajar Utsavam, Sri Nammalvar Utsavam and Vasantotsavam, giving the temple back-to-back major festival months each summer.

A particularly distinctive celebration is the temple's Teppotsavam (float festival), held over seven days in the Tamil month of Masi (February–March) on the temple tank. Three days are dedicated to Parthasarathy himself, with one day each allotted to Narasimha, Ranganatha, Rama and Gajendra Varadaraja, a scheduling structure that directly reflects the temple's unusual five-deity configuration and is rarely seen in this form at other Divya Desams.

As one of the oldest and most actively worshipped urban Divya Desams, the temple follows a full daily schedule of Agamic worship rituals across its various shrines, with separate archana and abhishekam offerings made not only to Parthasarathy but, on their respective occasions, to the Ranganatha, Rama, Narasimha and Gajendra Varadaraja shrines within the same complex.

Being in the heart of Triplicane, one of Chennai's busiest pilgrim neighbourhoods, the temple draws a steady daily footfall of local devotees in addition to visiting pilgrims, so darshan queues can build up quickly during the morning and evening peak hours and especially during the Chittirai Brahmotsavam and Masi Teppotsavam periods.