Tryst with history on a Pleasant Sunday

The day started very late due to the exhaustion and early schedule of the previous day. A colleagues marriage and strange as it may seem everyone was going for it, but at odd times and that made everyone fend for themselves.

I decided to drive the engagement and along the way picked up a good friend and set off. Deciding on the route was a bit of a hassle as the main highway to the place was being done up and this lead to innumerable blocks... The other two routes had different problems, the one through Kovalam and Poovar was just to narrow albeit a good stretch of Tarmac and the second option through Neyyatinkara was winding and at places presents huge potholes. 

Well the dilemma solved itself when another colleague who was driving down took that road and asked me to follow saying its a breeze to get to the venue. Ah the venue, well it's a little town on the very border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu called Parasala. So close to the border that the road sometimes acts as the border separation between the two states. Having heard much about this place it was but a matter of time before I found myself hitting this little town. 

The road through Neyyatinkara was indeed a good stretch and provided the much need drive through the little hamlets that dot the entire winding way and much to the delight of my co-passenger who grew up in some of the hamlets and have a lotta friends in the remaining hamlets. Being regaled with anecdotes on every place is just the best way to go on a drive. Little did I know that the day will be one in which I will be walking down the lanes of history with the maharajas of Kerala.

 We are just about to hit the town of Parasala when a signage shows that padmanabapuram Palace is just over 10kms from Parasala. Like we normally collect and store information I too sorted this bit at the back of my mind and focused on getting directions to the engagement. With a little help from my other colleagues it manage to hit the function at just the right time and was immediately rush for an early lunch.

The function got over before you have the thought to blink and in no time found myself sitting comfortably in from of a coconut leaf laid out with a lavish sadhya. For those of you who are not familiar with what a Sadhy constitutes, it's a lavish spread for lunch a signature style of eating in Kerala. It's a typical vegetarian four course meal that initially consists of a plantain leaf served with bananas deep fried, bananas deep fried with jaggery, salt, ginger pickle, mango pickle, a dish made with bottle gourd, one with coconut and peas, a mixed vegetable dish called avial, another one with pulses and pumpkin and a few other dish whose ingredients I can only image but for sure have coconuts in it. 

The first course is where a little rice is eaten with dal and ghee, after this comes the same process but instead of dal it's sambhar, then suddenly they pour payasam into the leaf and this is fooled by poli(besan dough stuffed with coconut) and vermicelli payasam. Just when you thought that you are done out comes the rice and a gravy made with pineapple, this is then followed by rice and rasam. Apparently the saying is that the course followed by dessert is to combat drowsiness. How far that is true is debatable but that's the saying.

It's after lunch that the road sign earlier filed to the back of my head comes forward and the nagging starts, "why not go visit the Padmanabapuram palace?". On asking a few locals they all suggest it's a good idea and worth a visit. That was the much need nudge and off we set for the Padmanabapuram palace.

The roads broaden once you enter Tamil Nadu, yes this palace is in another state but belongs to the archeology department of Kerala and the Kowdiar Palace in Trivandrum. The palace and grounds initially occupied around 186 acres but has substantially reduced after the state boundaries were drawn and is currently down to 6 acres. The Padmanabapuram Palace is actually a palace complex of 11 palaces, each built over a period of time. The oldest would date to the 16th century till in 1795 when the then king Rama Varma, shifted the capital of the Travancore kingdom from Padmanabapuram to present day Thiruvananthapuram. 

Reaching the city of Padmanabapuram you are faced with parking issues as there is no parking within the palace grounds and have to park outside paying a hefty fee of ₹50/-. Then you head into the palace and have to purchase entry tickets of ₹35/- for indian citizens and ₹ 50/- for mobile cameras or cameras. By the time we reached the palace we had to wait another hour for the counter to open as it was lunch time and the complex will only open by 2pm. With nothing to do we hang around the entry grounds doing what everyone one else was doing in the complex, the national past-time of the present generation - selfies. 

You enter the complex to a room that is a welcome relief from the hot sand to the cool flooring of the palace. The flooring is exceptional as it's made of a mixture of limestone powder, egg shell, rice husk powder and dye. With temperatures in the 30's the inside felt like it was in the 20's. The walk across the floor felt like a proper marble floor and the hall felt just right for receiving visitors. From there you go up past a framed Onam invitation. It's so big and bulky made of wood with carving of the deity seen in the Padmanabaswamy Shetram in Trivandrum, lead you to wonder, hmmm, invitation that king size! Just when you think that's the most you are up a steep wooden ladder to the first floor and into the main meeting hall of the king and his ministers. The exquisite wooden chairs and the China seat for the king is just the perfect setting in a room with 11 killivadhals ( small windows that open to let the air in) and ornate wood work.

From the meeting room you go down four steps to a huge hall which has beams running down the centre of the hall in regular intervals. This huge hall and a mirrored one below are the dining halls. It's so long and wide that it can comfortably seat 1000 people at a single time multiply it by two for the hall below and you get to feed over 2000 people in one shot. 

Moving on from the dining hall you proceed to the dance hall where the Kings used to watch the different performers and artists at work. This then leads to the very first palace. It's here you find an entire pillar made of the wood of a jack fruit tree. One that  holds the entire design together... From here on in the palace is one that you can identify with Kerala architecture and the wood work and the intricate designs blend well with each other to satisfy the expression to live king size.

From here to the guest house for visiting dignitaries you find a long corridor/passageway that opens to the street. This was were the accounts were taken and also housed the royal offices. The end of this had a very elaborate jharoka designed to resemble the seat atop an elephant. This is where the king sat to talk to subjects and listen to their problems. This then lead to another cool passageway adorned with paintings and art leading to the guest house for visitors. 

The Kerala kings were considerate enough to make some rooms take on the European design elements for the visiting dignitaries and thus aiding in a very cordial relationship with the foreign merchants and promoting trade getting the moniker, land of spices.  Even today this co-existence is evident as you can find a malayalam speaking gentleman in all parts of the world and of course existing in harmony. 

From the guest houses to the palace of the uncles where you find a massage parlour just above the steps leading to the bathing pond or kolam. You enter where they rest, store money and listen to music why there's even a bedroom all around an open centre courtyard. Ah what glory and bliss.

From the palace of the uncle the trails take you through the royal kitchens, massive in their dimensions giving you a glimpse at what the working kitchen would have been like and yes to wonder how many people it tools to prepare food for over two thousand people.  After the royal kitchen comes an area where the Kings would sit to enjoy a grand dance performance right in front of a quaint little temple. This dance floor is pictured in a very famous malayalam movie since then translated to several languages called manichitrathazhu.  The little bird windows adjacent to the dance floor is meant for the royal ladies to enjoy the performance and still not seen. This is typical all over the country as many a fort and palaces I have been to have latticed windows called jharokas for just the same purposes. 

After this you are back out of the palace through a much smaller but no less grand a gate. Once outside you are exposed to the blare of horns and the cacophony of the modern world and precisely at this moment you want to crawl back into the ancient world and take in the peace and comfort offered. But with a heavy heart and fond memories oh yeah a phone full of pictures i trudge back to life as I know it awaiting a next adventure in a very uncertain world...