Thiruvellarai Pundarikakshan Perumal Temple

Thiruvellarai Pundarikakshan Perumal Temple sits atop a low white rock hill on the Trichy Thuraiyur road, its name drawn from the rock's pale color. Regarded as one of the 108 Divya Desams of Vishnu worship, local tradition holds that it predates the Srirangam temple and was built generations before Lord Rama's own ancestors. The site is unusual among Vaishnavite temples for giving the goddess precedence over the Lord in ritual order, a distinction shared by only two other Divya Desams.