Arulmigu Koniamman Temple

The Arulmigu Koniamman Temple lies on the northern bank of the Noyyal River in Coimbatore, in Kongu Nadu, and is dedicated to Koniamman, a form of Parvati honoured as the city's guardian goddess. Local tradition derives both goddess and place from the chieftain Kovan: his tutelary deity Koyamma became Koniamman, while his settlement Koyampuththoor grew into Coimbatore.

Kovan's descendants are said to have built the shrine in the 1000s; Tamil sources instead credit the Irula forest people with raising it around the 1200s. After the rule of those tribal chiefs the temple declined, until in the 1700s a king of Mysore restored it and installed the goddess in her Mahishasura Mardini form, the slayer of the buffalo demon.