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Devotees pray to Mother Koppudai Nayaki for total cure from various illnesses they suffer from, for wedding and child boon, for profitable farm yields and progress in their trades.

Koppu in Tamil means branches. The idol of the Goddess is made of Panchaloka – an alloy of five metals.  She is wearing a crown of fire, holding the Trident in the right upper hand, the right lower promising boons to devotees (Abhaya Hastha), the left upper hand the rope (Pasam in Tamil) and the left lower a skull.

Acharya Sri Adi Sankara had visited this temple for worshipping Mother Koppudai Nayaki Amman and had installed the Sri Chakra.

As Mother is on a Sri Chakra, Her power is immense.  While Ugra Devathas (Gods or Goddesses with furious characteristics) are facing north in temples, She is facing east in this temple promising education, prosperity and courage.  The other special feature of the temple is that unlike in other temples, custodian deity Karuppanna Swami appears on a horse vahan.

The car for the festival is of a strange construction with palm tree frames joined with the stems of a special plant called Thaiyilan Kodi.  The car-rath procession starts in the morning of the eighth day of festival, passes through a canal, reaches the Kattamman Koil in the evening.  The Rath will be back in the main temple on the 9^th day.  As a canal is on the way of the procession route, a regular sturdy car is not made as it would be difficult to manage the canal when water level would be more sometimes to stand the shocks.  It requires special skill and experience to build a Rath of this type using only palm frames and plant stems.

This region was once dense with Karai trees.  Efforts were taken to cure the place to create a town for human migration.  This is called Kudi-yettram in Tamil.  As the Karai region was converted for Kudi-yettram, the place came to be known as Karaikudi.  There is also a village deity (Grama Devatha) story for this place too.  This temple has a subsidiary temple in the Senjai Kadu region nearby known as Kattamman temple.  Koppudai Amman is but the younger sister of Kattamman.

Koppudai Amman had no children but Kattamman had seven.  When She comes to see the children of Her younger sister, she would bring sweet preparations.  But the younger sister would not allow Her to see her children as Koppudai Amman was issueless and used to keep her children in hiding.  In a fit of rage, Koppudai Amman cursed the children to become just stones, left the place, reached Karaikudi and became a Goddess, according to the temple story.