Padmanabapuram Palace - The Royal Visit

Padmanabapuram palace is definitely one of its kind. The word palace immediately reminds one about grandeur, lavish decorations and wonderful works of art. Something along the lines of the Mysore Palace. However, Padmanabapuram palace was far off from it. It does not look massive at first glance with a single storey entrance. But the place definitely has its own charm.

REACHING THERE: Padmanabapuram palace is located at a place called Thuckalay, in Kanyakumari district in South Tamil Nadu. The nearest major town is Nagercoil, around 20 kms away. The palace is also close to Kerala and Trivandrum is just around 50 kms from here. The nearest rail heads include Kanyakumari, Nagercoil and Trivandrum.

HISTORY: Padmanabapuram palace belongs to the princely state of Travancore. Kanyakumari district was ruled by the Maharajah of Travancore in the pre-independence period. Post the state re-organisation, the palace came under the Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. As you near the palace, you would definitely see a strong Kerala influence. Therefore, it is also not surprising to find the palace too bearing a strong kerala style of architecture. The palace alone is still owned by the Government of Kerala, although it stands in Tamil Nadu.

ENTRY AND TICKETS: An entry fee of Rs.25/- is charged per person. If you carry a camera with you, you might have to shell out an additional Rs.25/-. The Palace is open from 9 AM to around 6PM, with no intermittent breaks. The Palace is closed on Mondays.

THE PREMISE: The palace is quite different from the regular ones right from the entrance. As you enter the palace, you would observe a small one-storeyed building right in front of you. There is quite a large amount of open space in front of the main building with a small well-maintained garden.

As you enter the main hall, you would notice a huge verandah with some artefacts that were used by the erstwhile rulers. Each of the major halls within the palace have a guide who take you through the various interesting things about the hall and for what reason that particular room/area/building was used. At the main hall, one can three very interesting things: Oil lamp hanging from the ceiling, wonderful wooden ceiling and a bed.

The uniqueness of the oil lamp is that it can revolve 360 degree and once rotated upto a certain extent, it would stay still at the new position and would not reverse back to its original position. The wooden ceiling is another great piece of art. The ceiling consists of over 90 flowers carved out of wood and each one of them is unique. one is sure to miss out on this real uniqueness on the ceiling unless pointed out by the guide. The bed on display is quite interesting as it completely made of stone.

As we move to the first floor, we get to see the actual courtyard of the palace from where the king conducted his daily business. The size of the courtyard is not massive as is shown in movies, but definitely had the right appeal. The unique style of windows of the courtyard, that facilitates wind and sunlight to radiate across the place brought its own charm.

Then, we moved into the Dining complex. It is a two-floored complex. It was not the place where the nobles dined. But, it was used by the king to perform Anna Dhanam (free offering of food for the poor) daily. It is estimated that around 2000 people had food here everyday. The halls can definitely accommodate 2000 people and the thought of so many people having food here makes you feel excited.

Moving on, we reached the central building of the palace that is four-storeyed. The building had several interesting things worth mentioning: Ambari Mukam, the window through which the king viewed the public and addressed their grievances; Hall of paintings, that carried wonderful pictures portraying the king, his army, family, valour and philanthropy; Indira Vilasam, the guest room for important dignitaries visiting the king; Wonderfully crafted verandahs; Giant swings; larger than life mirrors and the list is endless.

One interesting aspect of the palace is its amazing complexity. We just went around the palace following the signboards and we never were really able to gauge how massive or how well-spread the palace was. Wondered who the architecture would have been?

We then proceeded to the King's chambers. Here, one can observe the bed used by the king. Apart from being supremely crafted, it is said that 64 herbs with medicinal properties were used in the construction of the cot, to keep the king away from any disease. One could also observe the bed on Queen mother as well as the weapon room. The Puja room of the king was kept out-of-bounds.

Our next stop was at the dancing floor, where supposedly various cultural programmes used to occur. There is a separate wooden dressing room for the artistes. Tamil movies like Varusham 16 and several Malayalam movies including His Highness Abdulla, is supposed to have been shot at Padmanabapuram palace. After looking at the dancing floor, I was able to quickly connect with these movies. There is also a small temple, a well as well as a kitchen for making food to be specially offered as Prasad.

Finally, we checked out the museum. It is well-maintained and one could see several artifacts found in the palace and items used by the king on display. Interesting among them were stone carvings marking significant events of the palace as well as wooden sculptures of gods. These sculptures are so akin to those made using stone and looked so new, despite each of them dating back to 10th and 11th century AD.

Overall, it is a wonderful experience not to be missed when you are in that part of the world.

ADDITIONAL NEAR-BY VISIT: Thirappu falls is located around 20 kms from the Padmanabapuram palace. One could give this a try. Alternatively, if you are coming from Kanyakumari, visit the Suchindram temple. It is one of the rare temples that has a shrine for the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva together.

SCHEDULING YOUR TRIP: The best way to plan for a trip to Padmanabapuram palace, is to connect it along with a visit to Kanyakumari. You could view the sunrise at Kanyakumari, check out Suchindram and then push for Padmanabapuram palace. The palace visit is bound to take atleast 3 hours and you can then be back at Kanyakumari to catch up with the sunset.

Let the Royal journey begin!!!