The Tamil connection to the Andaman Islands traces back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when government administrators, dock workers, artisans, and merchant families from the Madras Presidency settled in Port Blair. To preserve their ancestral religious practices, Tamil community leaders founded a modest Ganesha shrine in the mid-20th century in Goleghar, naming it after the venerable rock-cut Karpaga Vinayakar temple of Pillayarpatti in Tamil Nadu.
Through generous community donations, master sthapatis (traditional temple sculptors) and Agamic priests were brought from Tamil Nadu to construct a full-fledged classical Dravidian stone complex, which was consecrated with a grand Mahakumbhabhishekam.
