Padmanabhapuram Palace

Padmanabhapuram Palace is located in kalkulam on the way to Kanyakumari from Thiruvananthapuram.It was the seat of the Venad dynasty that became the rulers of travancore state through the efforts of the King Martanda Varma in the eighteenth century.

The Palace is also famous for murals and wood works in the interior.Located within a fortified are,roughly square in outline,the buildings inside the palace-complex do not show any well-knit ground-plan. Perhaps its growth was spread over diffrent periods of time, The Thai-kottaram " Mothers palace" being the earliest of the building here.It follows practically the plan of the nalukettus with a courtyard in the centre.Of the several edifices with gabled tiles roofs,the mote noteworthy are the entrance-hall,the council-chambers,the theatre,the puja-mandapa and the stone temple of saravathi with a navarathri-mandapam in front.The paintings are found in a single chamber of the palace on the top floor referred to as Upparikka-malika "Chamber of Chieftain". It is in fact, the family shrine of the king.Since marthanda Varma dedicated his state to Lord Vishnu and rules as his regent,the chief here is none other than the family deity Shri Padmanabhasvami himself who is supposed to be residing in this room.Even though well publicised and rated highly,these paintings are in fact of inferior quality when comapred to the vast of body of mural paintings found elsewhere in Kerala.

The most important of the murals are the ones featuring Anantasayi-Vishnu,Lakshminarayana,Ardhanarishvara, Krishna with gpois,BhadrakaliChakra,Ganesha puja,Mukhalingam,Narasimha,Chandra The Moon god,Garuda apart from Paintings some of the wood works show delicate craftmanship through some amount of stylization is evident in the perforated screens, the floriated brackets, along with dhatura-flower pendants,and other carvings. A few cots kept inside show intricate designs while beams and the rafters are encased with wood work of flowing pattern.