Tiruvallur is a Grade I municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of Coovum river about from downtown Chennai (Madras) and just 5 km from megacity border, in the western part of the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA). It is a satellite town of Chennai and is the administrative headquarters of Tiruvallur district.
The city is known for the Veera Raghavar temple, one of the 108 sacred shrines of Vaishnavites. The tank festival is held at a pond near this temple. A Shiva temple near this shrine which is popular among the locals. There is also a tall Viswaroopa Panchamukha Hanuman temple, where the murti is made of a single green granite stone.
Poondi reservoir, from which drinking water is drawn to Chennai city, is about from Tiruvallur. The neighborhood is served by Tiruvallur railway station of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network. As of 2011, the city had a population of 56,074. It is one of the fast-developing suburbs of Chennai.
The name Tiruvallur is supposedly derived from the Tamil sentence tiru evvull? – Tiru meaning god, a common prefix in South India for temple towns, and evvull meaning where do I sleep?. Tiruvallur is said to mean a place or town where the god Veera Raghavaswamy asked a saint for a place to sleep for a night..
The incident is recited in the Markandeya Purana where, Once a Rishi (sage) named Saalihothirar came down from Badrinath, now in Uttaranchal State, and settled in this place in order to reach Paramapadam (the abode of Lord Mahavisnu). He bathed in Hiruthaapanasana Theertham and started the vow of silence (mouna viratham) for one year. Daily he collected rice and after a year of fasting, he purified and cooked the rice, offering some to God (Naivedhyam) and duly kept the rest for himself. He waited for a guest, probably a muni or Rishi, so that he could invite him to eat and end his fasting.
At that time Lord Narayana, intending to test the devotion of the Rishi, came there as an old muni looking very hungry and thirsty.