This temple is connected through legend to a girl who was a member of an important family in Thripunithura about 300 to 350 years ago, she was an ardent devotee of Lord Ganapathy and had a beautiful statue of the Lord for worship. This was a unique one depicting the Lord with two tusks. In the area that is today known as Kannankulangara, there was a Devi temple and a temple for Lord Krishna. A huge pond and the land around it belonged to the Lord. Close to the pond, there was a temple with Siva and Parvathy consecrated in it. The King of Kochi more had built bathing ghats as well as a dining hall close to the pond. This girl also used to come to this temple. But unfortunately, some nasty gossip was circulated about her which brought her a bad name. One day the girl came to the Sivat temple with the idol of Ganapathy in her hands. As she was sad about the tales that spread about her, she went into the pond with the idol of Ganapathy in her hands. On the third day, the body of the girl came up. As time passed the area became more populated. Children used to play in the shallow waters of the pond during the summer. Once one of the boys found the idol of Ganapathy from the pond. The children considered him as one of them in their play. Once their games were over they washed the idol and took it to the platform where the idols of serpents were consecrated and left it there. When the elders heard about it, they came to see it. They felt attracted by the beautiful idol and wanted to find a suitable place to consecrate it.  As the idol had been found in the pond, they found a place near the pond itself to keep the idol. They informed about this to the Brahmin family living nearby. The Brahmin got a platform made and made the boy who had found the idol take it from where he had kept it and made him keep it on the new platform. He then lighted a lamp and offered some naivedyam. Later the local people made a roof over it and a place for the people to sit and sing bhajans. Soon the kitchen and other structures were also built and a compound wall made it a separate temple.