Konankuppam is small village situated in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. Which was known as aariyanur Where veeramamunivar wrote the Thembavani in Tamil.
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The Perianayagi Madha[1] Shrine was constructed by the great missionary Fr.Beshi.
The place where the shrine is located was once a forest place. People used to come here for feeding their flocks. There were lots of trees and bushes here. In the 17th century, the Italian father and a great missionary, Fr.Beschi, brought two statues of Mother Mary to be kept in the place where he worked, namely Elakuruchi / Thirukavalur ( Now in Kumbakonam Diocese). He preached all over Tamil Nadu and on the way to his place he happened to pass over this forest and due to tiredness he slept under a tree with the two statues. The boys who were looking after the cattle, playfully hid one of the statues behind the bush. Fr. Beshi was shocked to know that one statue was missing and went to his place sadly.
There was a man called Kachirayar in Konankuppam. He had no child. Every day he used to pray to god . One day Our Lady appeared to him in his dream and said " Kachirayar, I'm alone in the forest . If you build a chapel for me , I'll give a child to you". After saying this she disappeared. Hearing this he was very much happy and began to search for the statue in the forest. As they cut the bushes and trees, they found the statue behind a big bush. This statue is placed in the shrine till today. People constructed a small chapel and placed this statue there and began to worship.
After some time Fr.Beshi happened to hear about this and came to Konankuppam and saw the small chapel built for the statue which he lost once. He was very much delighted and decided to make Konankuppam as his work place. He constructed the shrine which exists today. It is said to have been the first place of worship he erected and when it was completed he went to Madras and asked the Bishop of Mylapore to procure for him a statue from Manila, an image of the virgin, in native dress of Tamil Nadu and bearing the child Jesus in her arms, fashioned after a model he had made. The image eventually arrived and was set up in the church, were it still is today.
This life-size statue stands on a pedestal about ten feet high and is made of wood and painted in bright colours. In honour of it and of the Church, Beschi composed his Tamil Poem THEMBAVANI, which vying in length with the ILIAD itself is by for the most celebrated and most voluminous of his works. He completed this work in the year 1726. The Tamil conference conducted in Madurai during 1728 - 1729 AD approved his work and published it for the common good .
From Chennai it is about 200 km to reach Ulundurpet which is in the Chennai - Trichy highway. Konankuppam is about 12 km from Ulundurpet via Mangalampet. it takes about 20 minutes journey to reach Mangalampet which is in Ulundurpet - Virdhachalam road.