It was once a flourishing ancient port city known as Kaveri poompattinam and Kaveripattanam (not to be confused with modern Kaveripattinam), which for a while served as the capital of the early Chola kings in Tamilakam.

Submerged wharves and several meter lengths of pier walls have excavated in recent times have corroborated the literary references to Poompugar.

Ancient Pottery dating back to the 4th century BCE have been discovered off shore by marine archeologists east of this town.

Pattinappaalai also gives an idealised description of the merchants plying their trade in Puhar (Pattinappaalai – II –199-212): Buddhadatta, the 5th century writer who lived during the reign of Accutavikkante vividly describes the capital Kaveripattinam in his manuals (Pali language) as follows:[1] In the lovely Kaveripattana crowded with hordes of men and women from pure families endowed with all the requisites of a town with crystal clear water flowing in the river, filled with all kinds of precious stones, possessed of many kinds of bazaars, beautified by many gardens, in a beautiful and pleasant vihara built by Kanhadasa, adorned with a mansion as high as the Kailasa, and having different kinds of beautiful entrance-towers on the outer wall, I lived in an old mansion there and wrote this work..

In the Nigamanagātha of Vinayavinicchaya, Buddhatta describes how he wrote the work while staying at the monastery built by one Venhudassa (Vishnudasa) on the banks of the Kaveri in a town called Bhootamangalam near Kaveripattinam.

[3][4] The town of Kāveripattinam is believed to have disappeared around 300 BC due to this tsunami[5] The general plan of the city of Puhar is described in considerable detail in the fifth book of Silapathikaram (c. ).

Legends relate how great Muchukunda chola of solar race once led his troops to guard kingdom of lord indra namely amaravathi in battle against some powerful demons who were in possession of very destructive weapons.

The great Tamil work Silappathikaram says that in puhar ships creaked in with wealth from all 7 continents, that devas in guise of humans came and worshipped in its temples and that the nights were so bright that even a small grain of white lentil dropped in the beach sand could be spotted by naked eye.

Though heavily eroded by the sea in a number of places, this temple built in 1305 by Maravarma Kulasekara Pandiyan, still manages to impress all the tourists to Poompuhar with its architectural richness.