Fire and Rescue Services. This theppam festival exhibits one of the aspects of the richest cultural heritage aspects of Triplicane which one can see nowhere else in Chennai, other than Mylapore. Incidents The temple had internal conflict from the 1750s till the end of the century between the two subsects of Sri Vaishnavism, namely Tenkalai and Vadakalai. The two sects were grounded over the right of reciting each of their own version of concluding verses in the temple. A petition was received by the ruling British government to decide the religious dispute. English records mention petition during the year 1754 filed by local inhabitants and merchants seeking to resolve the dispute. They suggested that the Tenkalai Brahmins could recite their Srisailesadayaptram in the Parthasarathi shrine, while the Vadakalai Brahmins could recite their Ramanujadayapatram in the Telinga Singar shrine. The council agreed that the suggestion in the petition be accepted and publicly announced. There were further petitions in 1780 from the Tenkalai Brahmins that since the temple was built, recitals were made only in Srisailesadayaptram, which should continue. It also asserted that the trustee Manali Muthukrishna Mudali favoured Vadakalai resulting in the issue. While both the sects were claiming theirs should be the practice followed in the temple, the English administrators in India has deep rooted belief that old ways were the only solution to preserve tranquility. The Tenkalai sect had the sanction of antiquity and custom resulting in Tenkalai gaining precedence. The bearers at the temple were traditionally fishermen of Triplicane. During the temple festivities, they carry the festival idol in their sturdy shoulders in an atmosphere of wine and toddy shops. They bargained for additional rights in the temple in 1928, which eventually ended their ties with the temple. Bharathiar, the legendary Tamil poet and independence activist was struck by an elephant at the temple, whom he used to feed regularly. Although he survived the incident, a few months later his health deteriorated and he died. Swami Vivekananda, an Indian Hindu monkm was a devotee of Parthasarathy. In one of his letters in the year 1893 to his disciple Alasinga, he writes 'Take a bow before Lord Parthasarathy of Thiruvallikeni and give an undertaking before Him of a great sacrifice, one of a whole life for the poor, the lowly and the oppressed – for whom Lord Parthasarathy comes from time to time and whom he loves above all.'