Sri Vijayindra Tirtha of Kumbakonam mutt gave this magnificent idol of Lord Venkatewara to the GSB community at Cochin.
During 15th Century AD, the Vijayanagar Kingdom was ruled by a pious king Saluva Narasimha, one of the popular royal dynasties of ancient India. This king was an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati and used to visit the temple by walking up the hill for worship. When the king became old, and incapable to walk, it is said that the king's prayers were answered by the Lord.
One day a sculptor appeared before him and agreed to make an idol of the Lord for his daily worship. The king gave the sculptor the required materials for making the idol and the sculptor shut himself up in a room. As he did not come out of the room even after a reasonably long period, the room was broken open only to see the idol of the Lord, the sculptor missing. It is believed that the Lord himself came as the sculptor and the idol is considered as Swayambhu or self born. The king built a temple for the idol and he was instructed by the Lord in his dreams to consecrate the idol during the auspicious time, when the heavenly drums dundubhi would be heard. As fate would have it, some crows happened to fly over the royal drums with twigs in their beaks and the twigs accidentally dropped on the drums producing a sound, which was mistaken for the auspicious hour indicated by the Lord. The idol was duely consecrated at that hour which was inauspicious.The grief stricken king was pacified by the Lord in his dreams that He would remain with him till his death, after which he would leave for a place by name Gosripuram. After the demise of the king, a great fire broke out in the kingdom and the idol was thrown into a dilapidated well. As the legend has it, Swami Vijayendra Thirtha of Sree Kumbhakonam Mutt who happened to traverse that region during one of his tours, is said to have been led by a serpent to the well wherein the idol of the Lord was deposited. The Swamiji recovered the idol from the well and started worshipping the idol along with his other idols. Swami Vijayendra Tirtha visited Cochin and performed Chaturmasa Vrita among the Gowda Saraswat Brahmin Community of Cochin. Upon seeing the radiance of the idol, the community of Cochin under the leadership of Sri Mala Pai, requested the idol from the Swamiji.
The Swamiji agreed to hand over the idol in exchange for a heap of gold coins that would immerse the idol. All the gold coins brought in by the wealthy Mala Pai could cover only the body of the idol and not its tip. It was presumed that the Lord did not want to stay at cochin as a property of an individual. Only gold coins and ornaments brought in from the home of every community member could cover the tip of the idol. Kanakabishekam, a symbolic ritual of this immersion of the idol in gold is performed to the Lord even to this day during any special occasion
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