Today we went to visit Kuthiramalika and Veli as a part of 5 day community camp. Kuthiramalika is a palace built by Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma on the south-eastern side of Padmanabhaswamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram.
The palace gets its name from the 122 horses that are carved into the wooden wall brackets that support the southern roof. The official name of the palace is Puthen Malika (New Mansion). The palace forms part of a vast complex of royal buildings in the vicinity of Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The building was left unoccupied for more than a century, following the demise of Swathi Thirunal in 1846.
A portion of Kuthiramalika has been converted to a Palace Museum that houses some of the assets owned by the Travancore Royal Family. Although 80 rooms are there in the palace, only 20 are open for visitors. A guided tour is available inside the palace. The tour guide we got there is Vineetha. She explained each and every portion of the palace. We are not allowed to take photos inside the palace. But it allowed outside with 20 rupees pass.
The Kuthira Malika palace is essentially made of teakwood, rosewood, marble and granite and is said to have been built by a whopping 5000 Vishwabrahmins in 4 years.
The floor is constructed, believe it or not, by egg-whites, charcoal and limestone. This keeps it smooth and cool even in the hottest temperatures.
The palace collections include 14 life-size Kathakali mannequins, Belgian and Italian mirrors, crystal chandeliers, paintings, a giant Belgian harpoon, armaments, musical instruments, traditional furniture, greek statues, a musical tree which produces 8 sounds on tapping, and other artifacts.On the right side of the mannequins are the ivory cradles of various sizes.
On the first floor are rooms that once served as the audience chamber, the library and an alcove that Swathi Thirunal used for meditating and for conceiving many of his famous musical compositions. This place offers a direct view of the Padmanabhaswamy temple gopuram.
The small wooden stair there contains carvings of peacock, elephant, and dragon.
Ceiling of the rooms contain paintings of parrot, peacock, and elephant.
One of the rooms displays an illusion portrait of Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, painted by Svetoslav Roerich.The peculiarity of this portrait is that no matter what angle you look at the painting from, you will always find the eyes and the feet following you.
The courtyard of Kuthiramalika is the venue for Swathi Sangeethotsavam (also known as Kuthiramalika Festival), a yearly music festival commemorating the legacy of Swathi Thirunal. This music festival is conducted from 6 to 12 January every year.
Adjacent to the Palace museum, is the Sree Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma Chithralayam, a museum that offers a time-travel through the last two hundred years of Travancore. Conceived by late Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the museum provides the public an authentic perspective on the history, tradition and culture of Travancore.
We ate food from there and after that we visited veli it was a nice experience. I enjoyed the evening time in veli.
