Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple

Deity

Padmanabhaswamy in anantha sayanam on Adisesha, seen through three doors

Where

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala · 8.48N 76.94E

Usual hours

3.30 am – 12.30 pm, 5 pm – 7.20 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Guru Ketu

Visited for

The Lord reclining on the serpent, to whom the kings of Travancore gave their kingdom. Dress code is strict; Alpashy and Painkuni Utsavams and the Laksha Deepam every six years are its days.

The sthala purana has it that a sage called Divakara Muni was served by a small boy who was mischievous, and who one day put the salagrama being worshipped into his mouth. The sage struck out at him, and the boy said that if he wished to see him again he must come to Ananthankadu, the forest of Anantha.

The sage searched and at last saw the boy vanish into an illupai tree, which fell and took the form of Vishnu reclining on the serpent — but so vast that the sage could not take it in. He is said to have asked the Lord to shrink to the length of his staff three times over, and that is the size of the image in the sanctum.

Because of that length, the deity cannot be seen at once. Three doors are opened in turn: the face and one hand through the first, the navel with Brahma on the lotus through the second, and the feet through the third.

In the eighteenth century the ruler of Travancore made the Thripadidanam, formally giving the kingdom to Padmanabha and ruling thereafter as Padmanabhadasa, the god’s servant. The arrangement shaped the state and the temple’s place in it for two centuries.

Six vaults beneath the temple were opened under court supervision from 2011 and were found to hold an extraordinary quantity of gold, coin and precious stones. The custody and administration of the temple have been the subject of litigation since.

A strict dress code is enforced — mundu for men, saree or set-mundu for women — and non-Hindus are not admitted.

The seven-storey gopuram over the east gate is Tamil in style, which is unusual in Kerala, and faces the Padma theertham tank across an open square.

The corridor around the sanctum is carried on hundreds of granite pillars. The Ottakkal mandapam in front of the shrine is cut from a single block of stone.

The deity is reached by a passage and seen through the three doors in turn. The Thevarappura and the Kulasekhara mandapam are the other parts worth slowing down for.

The two Utsavams — Alpashy in autumn and Painkuni in spring — each run ten days and end with the Arattu, when the deities are taken in procession to Shanghumugham beach and the city closes the road.

The Laksha Deepam, kept once in six years, is the largest of the temple’s observances. Navaratri and Vishu are the other full days.

Also called

Ananthapuri, Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple

Period

Old foundation, rebuilt in its present form in the eighteenth century under Travancore

Reaching it

The temple is at East Fort in the middle of Thiruvananthapuram, about 1.5 km from Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station and a short ride from the airport.

• Attukal Bhagavathy Temple 1.1 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Pazhavangadi Sree Maha Ganapathy Temple 1.1 km · Ganapathi
• Adikesava Perumal Temple, Thiruvattaru 37 km · Vaishnava
• Kulathupuzha Sree Dharma Sastha Temple 48.5 km · Ayyappa
• Chitra Sabhai, Courtallam 61.8 km · Saiva
• Nagaraja Temple, Nagercoil 62.8 km · Other

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

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