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The Parthasarathy Temple is one of the oldest Vaishnavite temples in chennai dedicated to Lord Krishna. This ancient Hindu temple in chennai was built by pal lavas in 8th Century and reformed by later kings. This temple is One of the 108 holy abodes of Lord Vishnu. It houses deities of four incarnations of Lord Vishnu namely Narasimha, Rama, Lord Varaha and Venkatakrishna. Here Lord Vishnu gave darshan as parathasarhy, the charioteer of Arjuna during Mahabharatha War. Partha denotes Arjuna and Sarathy denotes charioteer.



Legend says that,King sumathi wished to worship Lord Venkateshwara as Krishna. Lord Venkateshwara appeared before King Sumathi as a charioteer here in order to fulfil his promise. Idol of Lord Partasarathy was installed in this temple by Sage Athreya. Here Lord Krishna is seen with a moustache (as per traditions of the charioteer) and conch. He is also seen without his weapon Chakra as Lord Krishna has promised to renounce weapons during Mahabharatha war. Lord's face is full of scars created by the arrows of kauravas in the Kurukshetra war. Among the 12 great saints in Vaishnavite tradition three of them have sung about the deities of this temple. This temple is located in the heart of the Chennai city and open to the public between Morning 6.00 AM-12.30 PM and Evening 4.00 PM to 8.00 PM.