Padmanabhapuram Palace is a Travancore -era palace located in Padmanabhapuram, Kalkulamtaluk of Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. It is owned and maintained by the Government Of Kerala[citation needed].
Padmanabhapuram is the former capital city of the erstwhile Hindu Kingdom of Travancore. It is around 20km from Nagercoil and 60km from Thiruvananthapuram city[1]. The palace is complex inside with an old granite fortress around four kilometres long. The palace is located at the foot of the Veli Hills, which forms a part of the Western Ghats. The river Valli flows nearby.[2]Another the palace is known as Kuttalam Palace which is also in Tamil Nadu which is under the ownership of Kerala Govt. It is situated in the Tenkashi, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu (Before state reorganisation, Kanyakumari District, Chenkottah Taluk, Tenkasi Taluk including the areas of Kuttalam are in the control of Travancore Kingdom (Kerala).
Construction
The palace was constructed around 1601 AD by Iravi Varma Kulasekhara Perumal who ruled Venad between 1592 and 1609. It is believed that the Thai Kottaram was built in 1550. The founder of modern Travancore, King Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1706–1758) who ruled Travancore from 1729 to 1758, rebuilt the palace in around 1750. King Marthaanda Varma dedicated the kingdom to his family deity Sree Padmanabha, a form of Lord Vishnu and ruled the kingdom as Padmanabha Dasa or servant of Lord Padmanabha. Hence the name Padmanabhapuram or City of Lord Padmanabha. In the late 18th century, precisely in 1795, the capital of Travancore was shifted from here to Thiruvananthapuram, and the place lost its former glory. However, the palace complex continues to be one of the best examples of traditional Kerala architecture, and some portions of the sprawling complex are also the hallmark of traditional Kerala style architecture. The Palace though surrounded entirely by the State of Tamil Nadu is still part of Kerala and the land and Palace belongs to the Government of Kerala. This Palace is maintained by the Govt.of Kerala Archaeology Department.
The Clock Tower and the Roof of the Padmanabhapuram Palace
Mantrasala (Council chamber)
Unique rooms
The Padmanabhapuram Palace complex consists of several structures:
Mantrasala; the King’s Council Chamber
Thai Kottaram; the Queen Mother’s Palace, constructed before 1550
Nataksala; the Performance Hall
A four-storeyed mansion at the centre of the complex
Thekee Kottaram; the Southern Palace
Council Chamber
King’s Council chamber is the most beautiful part of the entire palace complex. It has windows, with coloured mica, which keep the heat and the dust away, and the interior of the council chamber remains cool and dark. Delicate and beautiful latticework can be seen all over the council chamber.
The floor is also beautifully done, with a fine and perfect finish. The floor is dark and is made of a mixture of varied substances, including burnt coconut shells, egg white and so on. The remarkable aspect is that this particular floor finish and texture could not be duplicated in any other construction…
Queen Mother’s Palace
Mother’s palace, designed in traditional Kerala style, is the oldest construction in the entire palace complex and is believed to be constructed around the mid-16th century. True to the traditional Kerala style, there is an inner courtyard, called ‘nalukettu’. In the inner courtyard, sloping roofs from all four-sided taper down. Four pillars of four corners support the roof.
On the south-west corner of the mother’s palace, there is a relatively small room, called the chamber of solitude or ‘Kantha mandapam’. The chamber of solitude has very beautiful and intricate wood carvings of every description all around. Of particular interest is a pillar of single jackfruit wood, with very detailed and beautiful floral designs.