Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple

Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala State has shot into fame after the discovery of vast treasure stored inside the secrete chambers beneath the temple. However, it has been attracting thousands of devotees even before this incident. It is considered one among the 108 holy temples of Vaishnavites in India. And Thiruvananthapuram, which was known as Phalguna during Dwaparayuga has earned a status as a holy place even at that time. According to Bhagavatha, Balarama, elder brother of Lord Krishna has visited this place as a part of his pilgrimage and had taken bath in the ‘Panchapa Saras’, now ‘Padma Theertha’.

Although it has been designated as a holy place the legend of the temple says that it has been established later, during the period of Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar, also known as Divakara Muni. On those days he used to stay near the Ananthapuram Temple in Kasargode. He used to pray to God to appear in front of him. One day Lord Padmanabha appeared in front of him in the disguise of a naughty boy. He played with the materials stored by Swamiyar to perform various rituals. He even broke the ‘Salagramam’ a holy stone used in many rituals.

Angry with this, Swamiyar scolded him and tried to catch hold of him to punish. But the boy ran fast and suddenly disappeared. Realizing that it was Lord Padmanabha, Swamiyar repented his action and prayed the god to appear once again. At that time he heard a voice from nowhere asking him to come to Ananthan Kadu, the Anthan Forest to see him. Swamiyar has no idea about this place and he started his journey to Ananthan Kadu. He asked many people on the way about this place and nobody could help him.

When he was walking along the shores of Arabian Sea, he heard a fisherwoman scolding her son saying that she would throw him inside the Ananthan Kadu had he not stopped his naughty behaviors. Curious to hear the word, Swamiyar asked that lady about Ananthan Kadu and went there based on her directions. To his surprise, he saw the same naughty boy there, but he went merged to an Indian Butter Tree which is locally called ‘Illupa Tree’. Suddenly the tree fell down and turned to the figure of Lord Vishnu sleeping over the great Serpent God Sesha Naga.

The figure was too large as the head was at Thiruvallam, navel at Thiruvananthapuram, and the feet at Thrippappur. As he could not see the entire figure, Swamiyar requested the god to shrink to a smaller size, and the lord shrunk to a smaller size. Even then he could not see the entire figure as many other trees were there. He had separate Darshana of the head, middle trunk, and the feet. He offered rice soup and small mango pieces mixed with salt to the deity and then approached the owner of the land. With the help of Kooppakkara Potti, the landlord, and the local king he constructed a temple there and made Potti the Tantri of the temple. Later the Tantri rights have been transferred to Tharananallur Nampoodiris of Irinjalakkuda.

Ananthan Kadu Serpentine Temple is still there very near to the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple and so is the final resting place of Viluamangalathu Swamiyar. Later a Krishna Temple has been constructed at this place and now it is known as Vilwamangalam Sri Krishna Swamy Temple.

Later the temple came under the control of Ettarayogam, and the infamous Ettuveettil Pillais, members of a feudal family of the locality. Later, they tried to conspire against the Travancore royal family and sensing the danger, King Marthanda Varma started a battle against them. After killing all of the male members in that family, he made the women in the family to marry fishermen. Thus he put an end to that feudal family. Since then the administration of the temple came under the Travancore royal family. King surrendered all his wealth in front of the lord and ruled the country with the name ‘Padmanabha Dasa’.

The platform in front of the place where the deity is kept is carved out of a single stone and is called as ‘Ottakkal Mandapam’. Only the eldest member from the Travancore royal family has the permission to prostrate on this mandapam. It is believed that one has to surrender everything in front of the lord to get that right and as the King of Travancore has done it already, he can prostrate there.

Inside the temple, there are two other shrines belong to Lord Narasimha and Lord Krishna. This Krishna Temple has the status of an independent temple and considered to be older than the Padmanabha Swamy Temple. There the lord is in the form of the holy charioteer of Arjuna (Parthasarathy) and it is believed to have brought from Gujarat by two Vrishni Kshatriyas. Vrishnis are related to Lord Krishna and the successors of these families are now known as ‘Krishnan Vakakkar’.