'regional history') refers to a religious account that recounts the historical significance of a Hindu temple, or the sacredness of the region in which it is situated.
[1] The name of a given place and the temple present in a sthala purana traditionally has a religious or a historical association, with some major event surrounding it.
A Sthala Purana serves to offer information regarding the events associated with a given place, which is usually a temple.
[5] Sthala Puranas are categorised along three main themes: tirtha (sacredness of a site), khestra (a geographic area or place), and daivata (deity).
[8] The Alvars are regarded to have visited and extolled these shrines,[9] their hymns compiled in the Sri Vaishnava canon, called the Naalayira Divya Prabandham.