This story is found in the Brahmanda-purana and runs ;is follows:-
Once there was a Vaikhanasa brahman, named Gopinatha, in the Chola country. He was a great devotee of Krishna. He requested the Lord to grant him salvation. Krishna asked him to go to Seshadri and worship Srinivasa there and assured him that a sudra, named Rangadasa, would meet him on the way and be of use to him. The brahman came to the foot of the hill and there met Rangadasa. The two went up the hill and dug the image of the Lord from out of tlidl ant-hill. They installed it in a mantapa with a thatched roof and built a stone wall round it. Rangadasa used to fetch flowers and make garlands out of them and Gopinatha was worshipping the
at a higher level. The back part was built by the Vijayanagara ruler, Saluva Narasimha, in 1473 A.D. (11-50) and the front part was added by Araviti Tirumala Raya in the sixteenth century (VI-1). The front part contains two rows of four pillars each on each side. The pillars in the two outer rows are plain while those in the interior contain animal brackets. In the back part of the mantapa also there are two rows of four plain and those in the inner rows have onepillaret projecting. In the centre of the mantapa is a pavilion of black granite. There are two rows of two pillars each, both before and behind this pavilion. All these have apillaret projecting. The pavilion
has in the comers four pillars each with three pillarets projecting. There are a few Vaishnava sculptures on the pillars and beams ofthis pavilion. The statues of Todar Mai, his mother and wife are now located in the front part of this mantapa in the north-western angle.
