Thirukkavalampadi

Thirukkavalampadi, also called the Gopalakrishna Perumal Temple, is in Thirunangur in Sirkazhi taluk, 10 kilometres from Sirkazhi on the road to Thiruvenkadu. Counted among the 108 Divya Desams, it is also one of the eleven Thirunangur Tirupathis linked with Thirumangai Alvar. Vishnu is worshipped as Gopalakrishnan, with Lakshmi in two forms, Satyabhama and Rukmini, and the temple shares the legend of Vishnu taking eleven forms to calm Shiva's furious dance.

Its own stories say Krishna and Satyabhama chose this spot for a garden because it looked like Indra's, and that Krishna saved an elephant here, which gave the name: kavalam means elephant and padi place. The small shrine holds a granite image of a standing Gopalakrishna between Rukmini and Satyabhama, with a separate shrine for the goddess, and a three-tiered gopuram leads in, with a Garuda shrine outside it. During the Thirumangai Alvar Mangalasasana Utsavam in Thai the festival images of all eleven Tirunangur temples gather on Garuda mounts.