Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple-Trivandrum,Kerala

Location:
Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple is located in Trivandrum the beautiful
capital city of Kerala state in India.This temple is located almost in
the main centre of Trivandrum city known as East fort area.

Legend:
Infact the name of Trivandrum is a corrupted form of
Thiruvananthapuram-the city of Sri Anantha Padmanabha swamy-who is
Vishnu reclining on the famous serpent Anantha.This temple is very
ancient and is inseparable linked with the history of erstwhile
Travancore.Legend had it that when Padmanabha Swamy manifested himself
in this world his deity was 13 Km long which extended from
Thiruvallam(head portion) to Tripadapuram(feet portion).Villwamangalathu
swamy who was a great devotee of the lord was in charge of performing
poojas for Padmanabha Swamy-Villwamangalathu swamy was a very old
brahmana-it is said that in the morning he did poojas at bhagavans head
portion,in the afternoon he had to travel to eastfort on foot and perfom
poojas at bhagavans belly portion and in the evening he must travel to
Tripadapuram to do poojas at bhagavans feet portion-many days passed and
the old brahmana was getting tired of this and he personally requested
the lord to reduce in size and confine himself only to Eastfort area
where the temple and hence the deity is currently located.The form of
Vishnu that we see as Padmanabha Swamy is actually Garbhodakashayi
Vishnu.This temple is 8th most important in all the 108 Vaishnava
temples put together.The sanctum sanctorum is made from 10008 salagram
silas taken from the Gandaki river in Nepal.
Historically the rulers of Travancore are know as Padmanabha dasa
meaning servants of Padmanabha Swamy. The kings of travancore perform
Arattu festival where the members of the royal family lead by the king
personally carries the archa vigraha of Padmanabha Swamy to Sanghumugham
beach. Padmanabha Swamy temple is actually vaikuntha because of the
serene peace and anxiety less moments that you experience when you
enter the temple(Vaikuntha means without kunthas or sorrows).

Spiritual and Architectural marvel:

The temple is an excellent piece of South Indian temple
architecture-there are exellent stone carvings on the pillars and also
many beautiful oil and wall paintings.There is also the saptaswara
mandapa where there is a stone pillar which makes the saptasvaras.There
are many big vessles(including cheena bharani) for cooking for
Padmanabha Swamy that it was once used to make food to thousands of
pilgrims every day. It is also possible to see the the sea from the
gopura of this temple and also a scenic view of trivandrum city if you
go to the top of this gopuram.The kodimaram(flag post) of this temple
has a Garuda who is the vahana of Vishnu.Various sculptures expounding
the various aspects of hindu mythology like Kuchela
Vrithantham,Ganjendra Moksham,Killing of demon hiranya kashipu by
Narasimha deva are all depicted elaborately.
There is also the Padam(feet impression) of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is
the incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna in Kali yuga-who spread the chanting
of Hare Krishna Mahamantra as a means of deliverance for all
conditioned souls in this material world
"HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE"
He said this mantra will spread in each and every town and village in
this world to deliver the fallen souls in Kaliyuga the age of quarrel
and hyprocrisy.
There is a hanuman statue in this temple which is covered by ghee and
once there was a fire in this temple but the ghee did not melt-devotees
still offer vadamala to Hanuman Swamy.Before enetering the sanctum
sanctorum of Padmanabha Swamy there is a Narasimha deva kovil.
Padmanabha Swamy can be seen through 3 doors-head,belly and feet portion
respectively.Recently while cleaning the statue of Padmanabha Swamy they
found golden ornaments hidden expertly in black for centuries to avoid
the Muslim invader-Tipu Sultan from Mysore looting the temple gold.There
is also brahma sitting on the lotus emerging from the navel of
Padmanabha Swamy.On the way out there is a Ram-Lakshman-Sita kovil.There
is also a very beautiful Krishna Kovil nearby.There is a well inside the
temple and its believed to be a wish fulfilling pond-throw a coin and
wish smething and you will definitely get it done. There is a pond near
the temple called Padmatheertha which is considered to be very holy by
many pious souls in olden days elephants were employed to clean the pond
through their massive footsteps.The elephants were introduced in the
pond and they agitate the whole pond and afterwards the water is drained
out.There are many varieties of fishes in this pond but fishing and
feeding them is strictly prohibited.There is also the famous Ananthan
Kadu near by Padmanabha Swamy temple.There is also a clock tower near
this temple called "Methan Mani" which is a mechanical clock-it looks
like an ordinary clock with the face of a muslim inside it and 2 toy
goats at the 2 sides of the face-suppose the time is 2 in the
afternoon,the bell rings twice and with each ringing of the bell the
muslim opens his mouth in a funny way and the 2 goats hit him on his
cheek.This is a very amusing sight to see.