THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: K P Sadu, a technical assistant in the Archeological department, is walking through the stone corridors that line the famed dancing hall of the Padmanabhapuram Palace in Kanyakumari district. Beyond, the stoic, modest yet serene structures are stone-laid alleyways, which saw timelines and bloodlines of both Venad and then Travancore pass through.
This relic of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom is now under the management of Kerala government.
The air around the palace is full of tales from the yore and they infuse a loud silence in the dark. “Better not to think too much about the place at night; I stay in the office space on the palace premises,” Sadu says in a lighter vein.
Padmanabhapuram may be the complete picture of heritage and architectural marvel as one of Asia’s biggest wooden palace complexes, yet many stories lay stacked in the storehouses here. Many more are strewn around as stray stones with fading epigraphs and inscriptions. But, recently, a few have found their way as displays kept randomly in the gallery in front of the entrance.
“The palace is a huge representative of generations that led to the making of Travancore kingdom. Visitors come here to feel its overpowering majesty but identify it more for the hall where the famous dance from ‘Manichithrathazhu’ was shot. No one tells them about the area where the edifice stands, its dynastic participation, etc. Here, the artefacts turn into potent objects that could guide you into the past,” explains R Chandran Pillai, executive director of the Interactive Museum of Cultural History of Kerala aka Keralam Museum.
The Keralam Museum took over the revamping of the gallery space and converted it into a ‘story-teller’ museum enclosure that was thrown open to the public last week after nearly four years of work. The project showcasing the palace’s history matches well with the agency’s aim of using museums as interactive spaces.
The objects used for the gallery spaces include some artefacts already on display, some sourced from the storehouses of the palace, and others that were casually stacked up in corners. “Some were also procured from areas around, like the Saraswati Darushilpam (wooden idol of goddess Saraswathi), which was procured from a temple where it was part of the temple chariot,” says Chandran. The original idol of goddess Saraswati, cast in Panchaloha and worshipped in the now-abandoned shrine inside the Navratri mandapam in the palace, is also kept here.
The museum space starts with a narration on the origins of Travancore from the Sangam era, through dynasties such as Ay, the Chera, and finally the Venad. This is done through stone inscriptions and artefacts with footnotes.
“Everything has documentary evidence. For example, a proof of Chola influence is a stone inscription of 1001CE known as Vadasseri record which was housed in the Kommandaiamman temple in Vadasseri, then a suburb in Nanjilnad. Some idols and inscriptions also explain the myths and traditions of the times. There are also stones displayed with inscriptions that are called ‘Veerakkallu’ or ‘Satikallu’ in memory of soldiers who lost their lives in war and their wives who committed sati,” Sado chimes in.
Evidence of trade and lifestyle that Travancore has seen are the coins with clear inscriptions in Tamil, Malayalam, Arabic, etc. signifying the trade relations we had then. “Gold coins minted during Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma’s reign called Kaliyanpanam were the first to be used in trade. The most famous of the gold coins were minted during the reign of Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma. They were called Anantharayanpanam,” says S Sreelatha, a museum guide.
The gallery then extends to a space where the palace and its origins are introduced. From its core structure, the ‘thai kottaram’, to its current magnificence, which boasts additions by 14 kings since 1601.
“The entire fort area is 158 acres. There were several encroachments and some land were gifted away by kings. Now, the palace stands on about six acres of land,” says Vaisakh, another guide.
The highlight of the palace, Uparika Malika, holds the king’s chambers on the lower floors. “That is open to the public. But the rooms above are not. The topmost floor of the Upari Malika is supposedly where Padmanabhaswamy is worshipped with a ‘kedavilakku’ (still burning since the 1700s). The sword of the king is kept there and is carried to Thiruvananthapuram every year with the Saraswathi idol during Navratri. That room also has extensive mural paintings unique enough to be called Kerala’s rarest,” says the museum staff.
The higher spaces are not open to the public and so are the insides of the ‘thai kottaram’. The palace foundation may be strong but the higher levels of the structure may not sustain the huge influx of visitors. Regular patch-up work is a mainstay nowadays with damage showing up in places open to climatic variations. “We use the same mixture as before — jaggery, lime, egg white, brick, specific kinds of plants, and sand. These are mixed and kept for a week before being used for plastering,” says A Suresh, part of the maintenance staff.
The engineering wing of the Archeology department says climate changes are increasingly affecting the structure that even otherwise needs “geriatric care”. “The climate changes also show up as animal interference. The monkey menace we face is new. This is due to their habitats at Velimalai being tampered with.
This prompts them to spread out in search of food,” a senior official says.
The gallery has replicas of places in the palace that are closed to the public. So are the special weapons sourced from the armoury near the Indra Vilasom palace within the complex. They were sourced out based on their historical relevance with footnotes. The curation followed a theme and hence the swords of Diwan Raja Kesavadas, Velu Thampi Dalawa, Ramayyan Dalawa, and Dutch commander Eustachius De Lannoy, appear in the gallery to represent their relevance in Travancore’s history.
Armed with a gist of what the palace and its relevance are, visitors can manoeuvre through the courtyards and inner bylanes more easily.
“The palace is another world, and the museum is the roadmap to that world,” says the museum staff.
Those keen to explore history and legends could also aid from the gallery, which holds hints of historically relevant places that are not yet in the popular circuit. For example, the De Lannoy Fort, 3kms away. It was given by the king to the Dutch commander who joined the Travancore Army after they lost in the Colachel War.
“There are several such structures around the Kalkulam Kottaram as Padmanabhapuram was known before Marthanda Varma’s time. There is a beautiful and quaint ‘ettukettu’ built in traditional architecture in the palace’s vicinity called Thekke Kottaram. It was earlier a museum space but not any more. A deeply gratifying work would be to revamp that place to show the traditional life of people in that era. Because museums are storehouses of stories of life,” says Chandran, hinting at the importance of keeping heritage structures as the future’s keepsake.
“What stops all these works is funds,” he adds.