Mari Chettiar thereafter became a grahastha and an ardent devotee of Lord Muruga. He used to travel by foot every Krithigai to Tirporur and on one such day when he was resting under a Neem tree on his way to Triporur, Lord Murga appeared before him in the form of a cobra and indicated to him the presence of His vigraha under the tree.
Soon Mari Chettiar and his friend immediately started digging under the tree and found a stone vigraha of Lord Kandhaswamy. The vigraha was heavy, the lord made it light and enabled his dear devotee to carry it all the way to its present location in Chennai. By pledging his wife’s jewels, Mari Chettiar built a temple for the Lord and since that day the community of Ayira Vaisya Chettiars have gifted generously to the extension, upkeep and expansion of this temple.
Manarkula Vinayakar beautiful temple in Pondicherry is dedicated to Lord Ganapathi. Pondicherry was called before as Vedapuri for two reasons. One there used to be an ancient temple of Vedapureeswar and secondly a number of Vedic scholars used to live there.
The Vedapureeswarar temple was destroyed, and so was the Arya Vaisya temple. The Manarkula Vinayakar temple too was destroyed by the French rulers of Pondicherry, it is said, but the idol was so powerful that the temple rose again like a phoenix. Another legend says that the idol of Lord Vinayaka was thrown into the sea, but miraculously reappeared. The temple is 300 year old and to the eastern side of the temple lie the sea and the sands. Inside the temple, there is a small pond, which the preist will show to the devotee with the help of lit camphor. Even though the pond is close to the sea, the water is clear and it is believed that anything put into the pond will turn black in colour.
Many poets have sung in praise of this temple and its deity. In 1996 the Utsavar idol was installed and a grand kumbabhishekam took place, the pujas are conducted in accordance with the Rig Veda. The temple itself is lovely, with the area around the main shrine having pictorial depictions of the different forms of Vinayaka.
Selaiyur - Near Tambaram there is a placed called Selaiyur, the orginal name of this place was Silaiyur- the palce with so many Silais or idols. In Selaiyur you can find a temple at every corner and some of them ancient. One has ancient granite pillar but the idols of Adikesavaperum and Amirthayalli Thayar are new.
This temple has a "Deepa sthambam and there is a also a palanquin dated 1094, indicating that the temple is nearly 1,000 year old. According to the priest, the idol of the Lord was installed first. The idol of the Goddess was found in a nearby spot some years later and installed. There are also shrines to Sri Rama, with his consort. Directly opposite is a shrine to Lord Anjaneya, who is facing Lord Rama. With more and more devotees visiting the temple, there are plans to install the idols of Nammazhwar, Kaliyan, Andal and Manavalamamunigal.