The Adikesava Perumal temple in Chintadripet (chinna-tari pettai), an area founded in 1734 by Governor George Morton Pitt, to settle families of weavers, is home to three temples dedicated to Adikesava Perumal (Vishnu,) Adipurishwara (Siva) and Adivinayaka (Ganesha).
The first two temples are adjacent to each other and are called twin temples’. These shrines were constructed due to the munificence of Adiappa Narayana Chetty, a dubash or dwibashi (a person who could speak two languages) of the East India Company.
At the entrance of the Adikesava Perumal temple is a gopuram which has been completed only upto the doorway. Nearby is the large temple tank with a tall compound wall around it and a four-pillar granite mandapa. The way to the principal sanctum-sanctorum is through the maha-mandapam with many pillars copying the Vijayanagara style of architecture and studded with sculptures of various forms of Vishnu and portraits in stone of donors.
The ceiling of this mandapa has an eye-catching carving of a full-blown lotus with the ten incarnations of Vishnu (Dasavatara) sculpted all around. The main stone image of Adikesava Perumal, believed to have emerged from an anthill, is in a standing posture with four hands and flanked by consorts, Sri Devi and Bhu Devi.
On the lintel of the stone doorway between the two well-wrought stone dvarapalakas who guard the entrance to the sanctum, is a very nice sculpture of Anantasayana on five-hooded Adisesha and with Sri Devi and Bhu Devi at His feet. Two sages, one of whom is the horse-faced Tumburu are seen behind the Goddeses. Brahma and another sage are seen near Adisesha.