Vatapi Ganapathi temple is located near Nannilam, Tiruchenkâtankudi in Tamil Nadu. This particular spot is home to the Tevara Shivastalam Ganapatishvaram. According to the Hindu religious scholar and pundits, Tamil Saivite Saints of the 1st millennium AD, they have revered it by the hymns.
The ancestors of this region believes that Sirutondar, a general of the then Pallava monarch (circa 7th century CE) has brought an image of Ganesha from Vatapi, then capital of the Chalukyan Kingdom. Therefore this ganesha is known as Vatapi Ganapathi.
It is to be noted that the Karnatic music idiom salutes this deity, famous kriti Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje by the composer Mutthuswamy Deekshitar. Legend has it that for the sin of having killed the demon Gajamukhasura, Ganapati worshipped Shiva here.
Gajamukhasura was a elephant faced demon, who had largely received a particular boon of immortality (subject to certain caveats) from Lord Shiva, which greatly caused untold painful suffering to all the humans from his self made capital known as Matangapuram.
The elephant faced God Ganapati with his broken right tusk vanquished the demon. Big thanks to the blood spilled by the demon, the land at this spot is believed to have turned red so nthis place was named as Tiruchenkâtankudi in Tamil. At the temple the presiding deity is Shiva, but lord Ganapati largely receives the initial place of respected honor. In the tamil month of Margazhi, Ganapati’s worshipping Shiva is perfectly enacted in the form of a large scale festival by the villagers.