Commonly reffered to as the “King’s Palace” locally. Padmanabhapuram Palace is located about 1km direct North of Thuckalay, which was where my dorm was located for this region.
Being down in the deep South, this didn’t need to be built as a heavily defensive structure like the palaces and forts of North, particularly, N/East India.
The palace was built around 1601 by Iravi Varma Kulasekhara Perumal who ruled Venad between 1592 and 1609. The founder of modern Travancore, King Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1706–1758) who ruled Travancore from 1729 to 1758, rebuilt the palace in around 1750. King Marthaanda Varma dedicated the kingdom to his family deity Sree Padmanabha, a form of Lord Vishnu and ruled the kingdom as Padmanabha dasa or servant of Lord Padmanabha. Hence the name Padmanabhapuram or City of Lord Padmanabha.
If you’d like more detail on the building and history, click here.
Sprawling 2 storey hall designed to fit 1000 people per floor for regular feasts
Intricate roofline was designed to be “Monkey Proof”
Without the threat of constant invasion and attack, as well as easier ability to farm and harvest water, time was available to persue more artistic pursuits. This is very clear in this building.
The oppulence of this building and it’s surrounds are astounding, especially of the era with the tooling available to get everything done. They were still struggling with battery tool recharge times. Not sure if Velcro sanding pads were distributed there yet.