The twin complex of Sri Kalatthiswarar-Sri Varadaraja Perumal Devasthanam stands tall on Mission Street at the heart of the Heritage Town, defying all inflictions of time. Built and sustained by the Ayira Vysya Chettiar community, the ‘Chetty Koyil’ holds in its stones the story of an unfaltering continued lineage. At least going as far back as 1693, when it first featured in a Dutch map, but surely in existence for a long time prior, the temple has been a central node around which the town that came to be Pondicherry has grown.
The organisation of two temples within one complex is a heavy undertaking to say the least. The Kalatthiswara-Gnanambigai shrine, invoking no doubt the Kalahastiswara shrine of Andhra Pradesh, houses a Siva Lingam and Ambal in respective sanctums. The Varadaraja Perumal shrine invokes together with the Perumal Koyil on MG Road the great Varadaraja of Kanchipuram. The temple celebrates all the utsavams that the Saiva and Vaishnava traditions entail, including two Pavitrotsavams and, most importantly, two Brahmotsavams. Adding to the count is also the Lada Chinnamman temple on Lally Tollendal Street, which belongs to Chetty Koyil and is used often as a “Keni Kulam”, or temple tank. Soil for the Mrtsangrahana puja is collected from here before any major festivals at the main temple.
During the 1748 Dupleix-Jesuit destruction of the original Vedapuriswara temple, many of the idols found shelter at the Kalatthiswara temple further up the road.