As the place has clouds of smoke due to the Homas – a puja performance through fire worship – saint Tirunavukkarasar calls it Omapuliyur in his hymn.  The other story is that Mother Uma learnt Pranava lesson in this place and so the name Umapuliyur which later changed as Omapuliyur.  There are 63 Shiva temples on the northern bank of Cauvery.  Lord Pranava Vyakrapureeswar temple with Lord Dakshinamurthy importance in Omapuliyur is 31 in the rank.

Parents expecting their children to achieve academic excellence, come with them to the temple, perform abishek and archanas to Lord Dakshinamurthy.

Mothr Uma was listening to Lord Shiva on the Pranava Mantra teaching.  As her attention turned off, Lord Shiva cursed Her to be born a human on Earth.  After severe penance, Lord came to her as Dakshinamurthy and completed the teaching.  Hence, the place has Guru (Jupiter) importance.  Also there is no Navagraha (9 planets) shrine in the temple.  Traditionally, Guru shrine is in the prakaras facing south.  In this temple, Guru-Dakshinamurthy graces in a sitting form in a Maha Mandap between Lord and Mother shrines. 

Sage Vyakrapada came to Omapuliyur and prayed to Lord to grant him dance darshan in Chidambaram.  With significance to the visit and prayer of the sage, Lord is named Pranava Vyakrapureeswara.  Mother is praised as Poongodi.  A king Sadananda, a staunch Shiva devotee got his leprosy cured with a dip in the holy Varadanan tank here.

There is another event telling the greatness of the temple.  Two virgins from the celestial world came down to earth as swine and a human due to the curse of sage Durvasa.  They were chased by a tiger.  They ran to escape and reached Gowri Theertha.  A woman, after a bath in the tank was drying her hair.  A few drops of water from her hair fell on the virgins restoring g them to their original forms.