Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram
ശ്രീ പദ്മനാഭസ്വാമി ക്ഷേത്രം, തിരുവനന്തപുരം
Why this temple matters
In the heart of Kerala's capital, Vishnu lies in cosmic sleep upon the great serpent Ananta — the deity to whom the kings of Travancore surrendered their whole realm, ruling ever after as his servants. Praised by the Alvar saints and famed in our own time for the fabulous treasure sealed in its vaults, Sri Padmanabhaswamy is among the most storied temples of the south.
History
The temple of Ananta Padmanabha is very old: it is one of the 108 Divya Desams, the abodes of Vishnu sung by the Tamil Alvar poet-saints more than a thousand years ago, and the city itself takes its name — Thiru-Ananta-puram, 'the holy city of Ananta' — from the god. Its present grandeur, however, belongs to the 18th century and to the kingdom of Travancore. In 1750 the great king Marthanda Varma performed the tripadidanam, dedicating the entire kingdom to Padmanabha and declaring that he and his successors would rule only as Padmanabha Dasa, the servants of the god. From that act the temple became the spiritual centre of the Travancore state, and the king rebuilt it in enduring granite on a monumental scale. The temple returned to world attention in 2011, when several of its sealed underground vaults were opened under court supervision to reveal one of the greatest treasures ever recorded, accumulated over centuries of royal and devotee offering.
Architecture
The temple marries the Dravidian temple form with the timber-and-tile idiom of Kerala. Its great eastern gopuram, seven tiers and close to thirty metres high, rises over the tank called Padma Tirtham, the 'lotus spring', and is one of the landmarks of the capital. Within, the deity is unusually grand: the reclining Padmanabha, more than five metres long, is seen through three separate doors — the face and one hand with a lingam beneath, the navel from which Brahma rises on a lotus, and the feet — for no single view can take in the whole. Before the sanctum stands the Ottakkal Mandapam, a ceremonial platform said to be dressed from a single great block of stone, and a hall whose granite pillars are carved with musical precision. The image itself is made in the rare kadu-sharkara-yogam manner, a hardened plaster over a core, rather than of stone or metal.
Legends
Devotion holds that the sage Divakara Muni longed to see Vishnu, who appeared to him as a mischievous child and then, when the sage rebuked him, vanished into a great illipa tree, which fell to earth in the form of Vishnu reclining upon Ananta — a form so vast that the sage could see it only in three parts, as pilgrims still do through the three doors. The serpent Ananta, the 'endless one', on whom the god sleeps between the cycles of creation, gives both the deity and the city their name. The most famous modern chapter is the mystery of the vaults: of the temple's sealed chambers, several were opened to reveal immense wealth, while one, known as Vault B and marked with the image of serpents, has by tradition been left sealed, its opening the subject of warning and legend.
Festivals
As the temple of the Travancore royal house, Padmanabhaswamy keeps an elaborate calendar. Twice a year the great festivals of Alpashy and Painkuni culminate in the Arattu, when the processional deities are carried in state to the sea at Shanghumugham for a ceremonial bath, historically accompanied by the Maharaja himself walking on foot before the god as his servant. The ten-day festivals fill the streets with caparisoned elephants, temple music, and the ancient rituals of the Sri Vaishnava tradition. The Lakshadeepam, the festival of a hundred thousand lamps held once every six years, is among the most spectacular sights in Kerala, when the whole temple is wrapped in the light of countless oil lamps.
The Experience
Padmanabhaswamy asks of the visitor a certain formality: a strict dress code is enforced — a mundu for men, wrapped over ordinary clothes, and traditional dress for women — and entry to the sanctum is reserved for Hindus, in keeping with Kerala custom. Within, the reclining god is viewed reverently through the three doors, and the cool stone halls and the mural-painted ceilings reward a slow circuit. The temple sits at the very centre of Thiruvananthapuram, beside the Padma Tirtham tank and the old fort quarter, so that a visit joins naturally with the palace and museums of the capital. Dawn and dusk, when the lamps are lit and the temple music sounds, are the hours that best convey why an entire kingdom once knelt here.