Wooden palace of Padmanabhapuram

Padmanabhapuram palace is located in a sleepy little town that is rich in history. Tourists flock each day to experience the fame which the palace once possessed, when its inhabitants ruled with grandeur and fought battles with legendary courage. This tiny town is situated in Tamil Nadu, district Kanyakumari, about 20 km from Nagercoil, and 50 km from Trivandrum.
This palace was constructed by Iravipillai Iravivarma Kulasekhara Perumal. The fort is built with granite cut from huge rocks. The buildings are constructed from wood and stone, built in Kerala’s indigenous style of architecture. The fort stood as an impregnanble guard against invaders from neighbouring areas and foreign counties.
The ancient fort has several structures. In “Mantrasala” (literal meaning, king’s council chamber), the dark floor has been textured with burned coconut shell, egg whites and other components. In “Thai Kottaram” or mother palace, believed to be the oldest in the palace, four pillars (nalukettu) in the four corners hold the sloping roof. In the south-west, a small room called the chamber of solitude (ekantha mandapam) has very beautiful wooden carving with floral designs. The breathtaking “Nataksala”, or performing hall, is believed to have been constructed by Maharaja Swathi Thirunal (1829-1846) who loved music and dance. It also has peepholes for the women in the royal family.
The four-storied central building (Uppirikka Maliga) is located in the central part of the palace, and was used as the place of worship by the royal household. One can admire the king’s bedstead, made from 64 medicinal herbal woods said to cure diseases, presented to him by Dutch merchants.
The banquet hall can accommodate a thousand guests at a time. An entire room is filled with Chinese jars, these came as gifts from Chinese travellers and merchants. Equipment used in warfare, sculptured from wood and stone, are on display. And surprisinggly, still keeping perfect time is a clock made three centuries ago. “Thekee kottaram” (southern palace) now serves as a heritage museum, where it exhibits treasured from the past.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/99414" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-bca290f13a6d9f2061150b8d063d2ac1" value="form-bca290f13a6d9f2061150b8d063d2ac1" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="81535310" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.