BrahmAnda purAnam describes this kshEthram in a chapter known as "BrindArannya mahAthmiyam". Brindam means "thulasi" and aRanyam means "vanam" or kaadu or jungle. Similar to Lord Oppiliappan kOil, known as thiru viNNagaram, this place is also known as "thulasi vanam". A king by name "sumathi" once worshipped Lord Srinivasan in thiruvEngadam and did severe penance and sought his blessings and darshan of the Lord as Arjuna's Sarathi. (ie as geethA Acharyan). Lord Venkadan immediately blessed him and conveyed to the king through an asareeri ( divine voice from deep space) that "I had already appeared at the same thiru uruvam in brinda aranyam that has the kairavaNi theerththam. You may go there and have your darshan". Sumathi followed Lord's instructions and worshipped the Lord at this place.

It is notable here that since the Lord said to sumathi that he had already appeared there existed a previous account for this kshEthram when the lord appeared here first time. Veda vyAsar had an ardent sishyAL by name "athrEya muni". Saint Veda vyAsar gave a divya mangaLa vigraham of Lord Krishna and ordered his disciple to carry this vigraham to brinda aranyam and worship HIM there. In many ways this idol is much like the seer vibheeshanaaazhwaar obtained from Lord Rama which is Lord Ranganatha. (of course the original idol and very prominet that Sri Krishan HIMself gave to HIS cousin and minister Udhdava is in guruvaayoor).

This idol in thiru allik kEni is prominent for us in Sri sampradaayam and those who are taking refuge at Lord's feet as per HIS charaNagathi slOkam. It is becuase of the fact that the feature of this idol represents the moment the Lord gave us Geetha in arjunas chariot. It is hard to find out the details as to when Saint Veda vyAsa obtained this from Lord Krishna. However as similar to Sri Ranganathar of Sri Rangam, this idol also had some very special features of this avatharam (Sri Krishna avathAram) carried over with it. The idol had a changam in hand and "dhAna" muththirai on the other hand. DhAna muththirai is the one that points to HIS thiruvadi and indirectly says that take refuge there by surrendering and I will protect you by all means and Bless you". Lord krishna accepted all the arrows of the opponent's chief Bhisma when Lord was covering for Arjuna, as his saarathi or charioteer. These arrows made some scars on Lord's face and such scars are visible even today on the face of this ursavar that vyAsar did prathistai here as his (seethanam ?) or in memory of Sri Krishna avatharam. If one can go closer to the ursavar they can see these scars on HIS face and at this moment one can realize that this is the same Lord who stood on the chariot in the battle filed and one will get thrilled to have this realization. ie One can really feel HIS presence here if they can truly surrender and see this Lord, which will make one to have an electrifying experience.

Saint athrEya muni brought this idol here to brinda AraNyam with him and was worshipping HIM here as per HIS guru's desire. At this time a king named sumathi met Saint athrEya muni here and was surprised and enchanted by this idol and wanted the idol be installed here. AthrEya muni sought his guru's consent and finally It is conceived that Sage VyAsa himself did prathistai of this vigraham here and also piraati Rukmani at the right hand side of this perumaal at this brindAranayam, Both the King sumathi and athrEya muni performed aradhana and worshipped this Lord for a very long time and attained moksham here. This being the previous account, the later day king sumathi came here from thiruvengadam and the lord had appeared here for HIM as "Krishnan" (the moolavar), he conceived and established the truth that the Lord revealed to him through the asareeri that it was lord of thiru vengadam who had appeared here as "Sri krishnar" earlier. He constructed a big temple for the Lord. Since the lord of thiru vEnkadam appeared here as Krishna this lord is known as "vEnkata krishnan".

Aththigiri munivar did a severe penance here and sought the darshan and blessings of Lord narasimhar here. Lord Narasimhar appeared here as theLLiya singam and offered darshan to him. The theLLiya narasimhar at this temple has a very special feature as the muththirai of Utsavar in Telliyasingha PerumAl Koil is "AahvAyaka Mudhra" (i-e) calling PrahladhA to come near. Even in the fierce state of destroying the father of PrahlAdhan for his offenses , Bhagavan Narasimhan did not forget His Bhagavatha Sisu . Therefore He became TeLLIya Singham and invited PrahlAdhan with Vatsalyam to approach closer. It seems during the narasimha avathAram Lord narasimha's kobam was melting even kailyaam and every one came to plead to lord. However the lord didn't pay attention to anyone other than prahalada and despite HIS unexplainable anger, HE called prahaladaha using one of HIS hand saying "don't fear; you are my ardent devotee and it is due to your sathya graham that I took this avatharam to kill hiranyakashipu" and by saying so it seems Lord called his devotee prahalaadha using one hand and while the other hand is assuring HIM that HE is blessing him all the times and taking care of him *all* the times. Even when the Lord appeared with this kobak kanal to everyone he also showed the face of kindeness and grace to HIS devotee prahaladahan. Thus this Lord who appeared with this clarity is called as theLLiya singam (theLLIy means "clear" or "one with clarity" in tamil).