The Parthasarathy Temple, Chennai, Tamil Nadu India

The Parthasarathy Temple is an 8th century Hindu Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Lord Krishna, located at Triplicane, Chennai. It is one among the 108 divyadesams or holy abodes of Lord Vishnu. Lord Krishna is worshipped in the name ‘Parthasarathy’ in this temple, which means in Sanskrit, ‘charioteer of Arjuna’.  It was originally built by the Pallavas in the 8th century by king Narasimhavarman I. One of the distinguishing features of is that it has four of the incarnations or avatars of Vishnu: Narasimha, Rama, Varaha and Krishna.

The Parthasarathy Temple is an 8th century Hindu Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Lord Krishna, located at Triplicane, Chennai. It is one among the 108 divyadesams or holy abodes of Lord Vishnu. Lord Krishna is worshipped in the name 'Parthasarathy' in this temple, which means in Sanskrit, 'charioteer of Arjuna'.

     It was originally built by the Pallavas in the 8th century by king Narasimhavarman I. One of the distinguishing features of is that it has four of the incarnations or avatars of Vishnu: Narasimha, Rama, Varaha and Krishna.

     There are shrines for Sri Vedhavalli Thayaar, Sri Ranganatha, Sri Rama, Sri Gajendra Varadharaja Swamy, Narasimha, Sri Andal, Sri Anjaneya, Alwars, Ramanuja, Swami Manavala Mamunigal and Vedanthachariar. There are separate entrances for Lord Parthasarathy and Lord Narasimha.

According to Hindu Puranas, Lord Krishna was the charioteer for Arjuna during the Mahabharata war when he gave the Hindu holy book of Bhagavad Gita. Hence, the God, Sri Parthasarathy's face is full of scars created by the arrows of the Great Bhishma in the Kurukshetra war. Other interesting thing is that, God Krishna is seen with a moustache and without his weapon Chakra. The reason attributed is that he promised not to take weapons in the Mahabharatha war and hence he has only his conch. As He was the charioteer He sported the moustache keeping with the tradition. The Utsavar also has only a stick and not his mace as found with others. This is because the Lord was born in a cowherd clan.