The Kamakshi Amman (or Kamatchi Amman) Koyil on Bharati Street is a Vishwakarma community temple. It is said that when the Vedapuriswara Koyil at the site of the present Immaculate Conception Cathedral was destroyed, members of this community rescued the Ambal figure and consecrated it at their own temple. The story goes that when Parvati once playfully covered the eyes of Siva, the world was plunged into darkness. Fearing Siva’s anger, Parvati descended into the world to perform various penances. Her fiercest ones were in Mangaadu (just west of Chennai), her far more placid seated penance is famously in Kanchipuram, and her standing, placid penance is in Pondicherry. Here the Goddess stands about 5 foot tall. Above her is a 45-foot vimanam; the entrance to her temple is a 5-tiered Rajagopuram, both are built from burnt terracotta. The Murugan-Valli-Devasena and the extraordinary Dakshinamurti in this temple, both in a green-hued granite whose tint is visible only during abhishekams, are both said to have come also from the older, destroyed Vedapuriswara Koyil.
The temple’s major festival is the Kinni Rathotsavam in Chithirai Masam. Its highlight is the pulling of the temple car on the 9th day, which coincides with Chithirai Pournami. A 20 foot-high ther decorated with varying sizes of concave metal disks (resembling kinnams or small cups), polished so that they gleam in the moonlight, gives the festival its name. It also gives the temple its informal name: Kinni Ther Koyil.