The Hindu Business Line : A royal retreat

There are palaces and palaces, so what is so special about the Padmanabhapuram palace? One, it is located in the former capital of the erstwhile princely State of Travancore, and is among the finest surviving examples of traditional Kerala architecture. Equally important is that it is, perhaps, one of the few palaces in Kerala that is still in good repair and quite accessible making it a must see for visitors to the southern tip of India.

Located some 60-odd km south of Thiruvananthapuram, across the border in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, the palace nestles at the foot of the Veli hills and is a couple of kilometres off the highway that connects Thiruvananthapuram with Kanyakumari.

The approach to the palace is scenic; the road winds upwards through acres of banana plantations with the brooding hills in the background. The imposing granite walls of the fort are the first hint that you are approaching the palace. You wend your way through the narrow streets of the unspoilt town — more a village actually — and all of a sudden there it is — the Padmanabhapuram palace.

Some time in the 14th century, the Trippapur Moopan, head of the Trippapur Swaroopam family that ruled Padmanabhapuram, built a palace with a mud-fort at Kalkulam in the traditional Kerala Nalukettu style and called it Darpakulangara. In the 18th century, after renovating the palace and replacing the mud-fort with a four-km-long granite wall, Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the ruler of Travancore, renamed the fort, the palace and the surrounding areas Padmanabhapuram, in honour of the Lord Padmanabha, the patron deity of the royal family of Travancore. Padmanabhapuram continued as the seat of the royal family of Travancore, till the capital was shifted to Thiruvananthapuram in 1780.

The palace, actually a complex of 14 palaces, is spread over 6.5 acres. Entry is through the Padippura (the main gate), an essential feature of any old Kerala house. Two horse riders in wood welcome you into the Poomukham, the entrance hall. The elaborately carved wooden ceiling and pillars of the entrance hall catch your eye and you cannot but stare open-mouthed at the flowers carved into the ceiling — 90 of them; each carved in a different design!

On the verandah to the right of the entrance hall is a cot made of seven pieces of granite and once used by the kings of Travancore and a throne constructed in Chinese fashion. A narrow wooden staircase leads upwards through a trapdoor to the first floor of the Poomukham where the Mantrasala or council chamber is. Here, the king used to meet his ministers and other dignitaries.

The chamber is lined with a broad wooden bench with a receptacle beneath it. Wooden louvers set into the bench admit air helping to keep the temperature inside the room constant. On hot summer days, this receptacle was filled with khus, sandalwood and other aromatic herbs sprinkled with water, filling the Mantrasala with a fragrant, cooling breeze. Another special feature of this chamber is the floor — or rather its ingredients — a special mixture of lime, burnt coconut shells, white of eggs, tender coconut water, sand, laterite and juices of herbs!

The Oottupura or dining hall is adjacent to the council chamber. The two halls on the ground and first floors, used to provide free meals to about 2,000 brahmins every day. This generosity perhaps testifies to the fact that Travancore was once known as Dharma-Bhoomi, the land of charity and righteousness. Awed by this now-extinct quality, one descends to find the next beautiful part of the complex, the Thaikottaram or the mother palace, which is the oldest part of the complex and houses some of the original structures of Darpakulangara. The building is in the traditionally typical style of Nalukettu, with a nadumittam (open courtyard) in the centre. The elevated pathway on the left has in its mid-way, a trapdoor leading to a dark tunnel. It is believed that this was a secret escape route leading to the Charode palace, two km away. On the far side was once the royal dining hall, now lined with glazed Chinese martabans (huge clay vessels).

An elaborately carved wooden pillar in the palace

What next holds one's attention on the premises is the Upparika malika or the King's Quarters. `Uparika' means multi-storeyed, and the building has four floors. While the king lived in the upper floors, the palace treasury was on the ground floor. The most charming part of the royal quarters is the Sapramancham, the king's four-poster bed made of some 67 different pieces of medicinal wood. It is believed to have been presented to the king by the Dutch East India Company in the 16th century.

In the courtyard in front of this building one comes across the most curious structure — a pillar with a heavy round stone on top of it. Any young man who wanted to join the royal army had to raise the stone atop the pillar, which weighs about 38 kg, 100 times to qualify. And this military recruitment exercise was watched by the king from his quarters in the Upparika malika.

From the first floor of the Upparika malika, runs a passage that leads to the Anthapuram (ladies' quarter) where the queen, princesses and their attendants lived. At the end of the long hall is the bedroom of the queen mother with a cloth-canopied bed of cane with ivory designs. Nearby is a small corridor with a decorative panel on the right. And it is from here that the ladies had a glimpse of the performances going on below in the Navarathri Mandapam — arguably the most beautiful part of the Padmanabhapuram palace — and the most forbidden too. Tourists can look at this imposing granite structure only from outside the cordoned-off area. Reason? Years of misuse by eager tourists and film-makers, who used the mandapam to add magic to the silver screen.

And magical it is, with the sunlight reflecting the glistening, jet-black floor in the centre. The sculpted stone pillars add an illusion of space to this confined area. During the Navrathri festival, this hall came alive with musicians and dancers who kept the audience enthralled for nine consecutive days.

The other parts in the palace complex are the Thekkekottaram, the Southern palace, the Indravilasam palace built to house foreign delegates, the Homappura, where religious offerings were made, and the museum block constructed in recent years by the archaeological department.

Almost all visitors end their tour of the palace with the museum complex bursting with invaluable artefacts, sculptures, inscriptions and other memorabilia of times gone by.

When you finally emerge from the gates out into the open, you get this strange feeling — of having relived history, of having taken a journey back in time. And as you leave the sleepy town of Padmanabhapuram, you take a bit of history with you.

Pictures by Ravi Sankar K.V.

Fact file

How to get there: Padmanabhapuram is a two-and-a-half hour drive from Thiruvananthapuram on the highway to Kanyakumari. The nearest railway station is at Nagercoil. The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation runs a daily tour to Kanyakumari that stops at Padmanabhapuram. But for a more relaxed visit hiring a cab from Thiruvananthapuram may be a better option.

When to visit: The best time to visit is from November to May. However, a visit in the monsoon months of June and July may be worth it, as there is not much of a tourist crowd.

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