The town of Tlrupad came into existence only about the middl of the twelfth century, with the foundation of the Govindarajasva temple. Before this time there was a small village, named Kottur, t_ the north-east of Kapilatirtham, situated about two miles to th north of the modem town. On the spot where the Govindarajasva temple stands there was a small shrine dedicated to Krishna. Th famous Vaishnava teacher, Ramanuja, founded the Govindaraj temple and started a small settlement round it name Ramanujapuram, confined to the four Mada streets round the tempi . This small colony was expanded later on; particularly inVijayanaga times. An Achyutarayapuram came into existence to the north-east. A Srinivasapuram came to be formed to the west. The main baza was formed and a fairly big township grew up. Several other shrines were also founded like the Rama or Raghunatha temple, the Periya alvar shrine, the Achyutaraya temple, the Nammalvar shrine, th Kapilesvara shrine and the Narasimha shrine. Near the foot of th hills a Lakshminarasimha temple and an Alvar shrine came to be built
