Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple Trivandrum
Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple The history of goes back to 8th century. References to temple are found in the Divya prabandha canon of literature written by Tamil Alwar. Alvars Tamil Saint poets who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries AD.
Sri Padmanabha Temple references are also to have in the Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, Varaha Purana, and Vayu Purana. One of the twelve Alvars, Nammalvar (8th Century) had written four slokas and one phalasruthi about Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
Major Renovation of Temple by Marthanda Varma It is believed that Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and its properties were maintained by Ettuveetil Pillamar – the eight powerful Nair feudal lords of ancient Travancore. Later His Royal Highness Sree Marthanda Varma Anizham Thirunal suppressed the Ettuveetil Pillais and his cousins and took over the control of the temple.
Marthanda Varma has done a major renovation to the temple and the current structure of Padmanabhaswamy temple was also made by the King.Murajapam and Bhadra Deepam Introduced in Temple The Marthanda Varma has introduced the Murajapam and Bhadra Deepam festival in the temple.Murajapam, which literally means continuous chanting of prayers, is still conducted in the temple once in 6 years.
Murajapam is performed when 12 Bhadradeepam joins.Travancore was dedicated to Sree Padmanabhaswamy in 1750In 3rd January 1750, Maharajah Marthanda Varma dedicated the kingdom of Travancore to Lord Padmanabha. Marthanda Varma vowed that the royal family will rule the state on behalf of Lord and he and his descendants would “serve” the kingdom as Padmanabha Dasa of Lord Padmanabha. Since then the name of every Travancore King was preceded by the title Padmanabha Dasa, while the female were called Padmanabha Sevinis.
The donation of the kingdom of Travancore to Padmanabhaswamy was known as “Thripadidanam”. After dedicating the kingdom to the Lord, Marthanda Varma was known as Sripadmanabha Vanchipala Marthandavarma Kulasekaraperumal. By giving the Kingdom to Lord Padmanabha, the whole Travancore state became the property of Sree Padmanabhaswamy, and hence it is very appropriate to call Kerala as “God’s Own Country”or Sree Padmanabhaswamy’s Own Country.
Travancore Kings after Marthanda Varma After the death of Marthanda Varma in 1758, all the succeeded Kings of Travancore took great care in continuing the daily poojas and ceremonies of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple intact and also rule the kingdom as Padmanabha Dasa. The successors of Marthanda Varma was Dharma Raja, Balarama Varma, Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, Gowri Parvati Bayi, Swathi Thirunal, Uthram Thirunal, Ayilyam Thirunal, Visakham Thirunal, Moolam Thirunal, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, and Chithira Thirunal. The present head of the Travancore Royal Family, Sri Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma also keeps the words of Marthanda Varma and is very loyal to Sree Padmanabhaswamy and maintains the temple rituals and ceremonies intact.
Sree Padmanabhaswamy can seen from 3 Doors
The garbhagriha of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is located on a stone slab and the Lord who is seen resting on the serpent inside is viewed through three different doors.
The head and chest are seen in the first door;
The middle portion and hands appear through the second door
The feets are seen through the third door.
His right hand is hanged over Lord Shiva. Beside him are his consorts, Sridevi and Bhudevi and Lord Brahma is seen on a lotus, which comes from the navel of Vishnu. The idol is about 18 feet long .built with 10008 Saligram stones and covered with gold and precious stones. The distinctive feature of the temple is that it has idols of the Lord in three postures. Main idol inside the sanctum is in the reclining posture; the idol seen through the central door in the standing posture, and there is an Utsava Murthi (the idol taken out for the festival processions) in the sitting posture.
Rs 90000 Crore Gold Treasure in Temple
Around 90,000 crore worth treasure (Nidhi) has found in the secret cellars of the famous Kerala Temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu – Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The 7 member paper appointed by the Supreme Court of India, has been preparing the list of valuable found in the cellars of Sri Padmanabhaswami Temple. The temple has 6 Secret Cellars (Nilavara – a place to keep assets safe) from Cellar A to Cellar F. Opening of each of these chambers is revealing a virtual treasure trove with precious diamonds, golden ornaments, emeralds, jewelleries,rare antique silver and brass platters and golden idols. An estimation of above 90,000 crore treasure was valued at the completion of the 6th day of valuing the assets of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.