THE CITY OF SREEPADMANABHA

History says that Thiruvananthapuram was made the capital of Venad which later became Travancore hundreds of years back. The State of Travancore was ruled by the Royal family of Travancore. Before shifting to this city, the state was ruled by the Royal family from Padmanabhapuram presently in Tamilnadu. The states of Cochin and Travancore were merged together to form one single state of Thirukochi a few years before India became independent. Even then Thiruvananthapuram was the capital of the unified state. In the year 1956 when states in the Indian union were formed on linguistic basis, Malabar which till then was part of Madras province was also added to Thirukochi to form the state of Kerala. The new state came into existence on the first of November 1956 again with Thiruvananthapuram as the capital.

Photo Courtesy: www.oasistourindia.com

During the rule of Marthanda Varma in the seventeenth century, the State of Travancore was declared as the Lord’s State and the ruler was declared ‘Padmanabhadasa’ meaning servant of the Lord. The Royal family took excellent care of the city and the state which is evident from the innumerable facilities made available to the citizens. Well laid out roads, railways connecting Thiruvananthapuram to the length and breadth of the country, airport, hospitals, educational institutions, libraries, reading rooms and radio broadcasting station are all examples. After independence the democratically elected governments started ruling the state of Kerala from the Secretariat. This impressive building was built by the Maharajas with the help of the British. The name Thiruvananthapuram brings to the minds of every person the beautiful and wonderful structures of Sree Padmanabhaswami temple, the Secretariat, the Diamond Hill Palace (Kanakakunnu), the Napier Museum etc. This beautiful city attracts tourists from all over the world. The famous beaches at Shankumughom, Kovalam and Varkala add to the attractions of the city. This capital city was also famous as the cleanest city in India a few years back. But of late due to growth and population, traffic and commercialisation the city corporation is facing problems in the upkeep of the town.

Urbanisation

Though Thiruvananthapuram has been the capital for years, the city was not known as an industrial city unlike other capital cities like Madras, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Only a few major industries like Travancore Titanium Products Ltd., Hindustan Latex Ltd., etc existed in Thiruvananthapuram. The city slowly became known as an IT city after the formation of the Technopark at suburban Kazhakootam. 1990s saw the city growing as an industrial and commercial capital with more establishments coming up like the International airport, the Southern Air Command HQRS, the Regional Cancer Centre, Sree Chithira Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences, many educational institutions and luxurious hotels. Added to this is the inflow of tourists to destinations like Kovalam,Varkala,Ponmudi and Kanyakumari. With most of the government departments, boards and corporations headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram, finding accommodation is a problem faced by the employees of these offices. The city is expanding vertically and horizontally with many multistoried buildings coming up even at suburbs. There is a proposal to develop Vizhinjam as an International sea port. The work related to this is in progress.

Photo courtesy: www.bbc.co.uk

Thiruvananthapuram is now hitting the headlines of all media for a special reason related to Sree Padmanabha Swami temple. As directed by the Supreme Court the valuables of this temple like gold coins, ornaments, diamonds, precious stones, other jewelleries, utensils etc made of gold and silver are being taken stock of. These ‘invaluable’ valuables were hitherto kept inside vaults and strong rooms in the basement provided for the purpose. The royal family and the rulers of Travancore had made special arrangements for safe custody of all the valuables belonging to Sree Padmanabha Swami temple. Though it was known that there were valuable treasures in the strong rooms, the lockers were never opened for a long time. Most of these valuables were donations (kanikka) submitted to Padmanabha Swami by devotees including rulers of many princely states of those days. But now, when the stock was actually taken, it has come to be known that Sree Padmanabha Swami temple is the richest temple in the world with the ‘valuables’ values at more than rupees one lakh crores. No doubt, Thiruvanathapuram will become one of the most important cities in India.