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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur, Kerala. upload.wikimedia.org |
Shakthan Thampuran Palace (renamed as Vadakkekara Palace) of Thrissur City in Kerala state is a historical place restructured in 1795 in Kerala-Dutch style by the erstwhile ruler Ramavarma Thampuran of the Princely State of Cochin. Considered as the greatest ruler of the Cochin Dynasty (Sakthan Thampuran) his reign happened to be a golden era as he was a good administrator deeply interested in the welfare of his subjects. The palace that is being managed by the State _Archaeological department was converted into a museum in 2005.
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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur, kerala. keralatourism.org |
Built in typical Kerala style with Dutch features the two-story structure (mostly made of wood) of the Sakthan Thampuran Palace has a traditional Kerala style Nalukettu plan with a central courtyard and four blocks of self-contained residential quarters around it. The distinctive features are high roofs, thick walls, large rooms and fine quality Italian marble floors. Because of high roof and provision for cross ventilation, the interiors are cool and the inmates of the palace never feel the impact of hot weather condition prevailing outside the palace. Further, the slanting extended roof rain out the water easily keeping the walls and windows safe particularly, on the first floor. Centrally located high roof porch gives the building an impressive look.
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| Eastern gate,Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissurcommons.wikimedia.org |
Thampuran Palace was once owned by Perumpadappu Swaroopam family, the ruling dynasty of Kochi. The ruling family has been known for centuries. Being the seat of power, King Rama Varma Sakthan Thampuran, who ruled Kochi between AD 1790 and 1805 was held in great esteem by his people because being a man of affable nature and innate administrative skill he ruled the kingdom well in accordance with dharma and he was supported by his hereditary prime minister Paliath Achan.
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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur,.keralatourismhotels.com |
Not withstanding the fact that Rama Varma Sakthan Thampuran ascended the throne rather late, being intelligent as he was, he ruled the kingdom well and at the same time, as the princely head, he never failed to maintain a cordial relation with the British (under the East India company rule). The English on their part never kept their eyes away from the young ruler who got a good name among his people. Earlier when he became the heir apparent in 1769 Kochi was under the threat of the rulers of Calicut, Travancore and Mysore. So equal importance was given to maintain better relation with neighboring rulers of Travancore and Mysore, etc. On the advice of his PM Paliath Achan he arrived at a truce with the king of Travancore, Zamorin of Calicut and with Hyder Ali of Mysore. After assuming power as the king of Kochi in 1790, he without any hesitation put down the feudal lords and the temple based power system and improved the state finance by careful handling of trade relations. By making Thrissur the cultural capital of Kerala, Shakthan Thampuran became an immortal figure in this part of Kerala and he died in 1805 and was buried in the Shakthan Palace and so were another ruler of the kingdom of Cochin and a Zamorin (ruler of Calicut) as well.
The famous Vadakkumnathan Temple in Thrissur is close to his palace. The world famous Thrissur poorum (annual festival that comes in May) festival owes its origin to Saktan Thampuran. The teams participating in the event include the Parmekavu Bhagavathy temple and Tiruvambadi Krishna temple competing for primacy in front of the Vadakkumnathan temple with elephants, percussion, drums, fireworks, etc.
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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur,.indiavideo.org |
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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur,. holidaylandmark.com |
Once called Vadakkechira Kovilakam ( Kovilakam means royal family residence) the ruler restructured the palace to suit his convenience. The palace keeps safely the record of events associated with the visit of Tipu Sultan of Mysore with his army and it is said, that he had built a flag mast there. Surprisingly, the palace has preserved a very old Sarpakavu (shrine for serpents/ sacred serpent grove) on its premises. Worship of serpent gods like Naga Raja (King of the snakes) was common in the past. It is believed to bring prosperity to the royal family. Apart from the occasional prayers and ritualistic feeding of milk to the snakes to please the serpent gods, human interventions in these places are said to be nil. Shakthan Thampuran died in 1805 and was buried in the Shakthan Palace along with two other royal members. Rama Varma Bharathan Thampuran, a grand nephew of Chowarayil Theepetta Veliyathampuran was the last princely member to have stayed in this historical palace.
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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur .holidaylandmark.com |
This historical palace was in a state of neglect for a pretty long time with damaged roof tiles. It was in 2014, the state government chipped in and allocated Rs. 50 lakhs to carry out major repairs. The roof tiles were replaced with new ones and Aluminum sheets were laid under the conical roof to protect the wooden sheets as well as wooden frame work. This was done to prevent damages to the wooden cover, etc., as this part of Kerala receives lots of rain during the SW monsoon June to September. In the megalithic gallery, damaged wooden furniture, including doors and windows, garden and gates, office and guard rooms and compound walls of the palace were also repaired and restored. The credit goes to the Archaeology department who gave a major facelift to the old palace without damaging its heritage values.
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| cannon Shakthan Thampuran Palace, .deccanchronicle.com |
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| Shakthan Thampuran Palace, Thrissur, ddarchitects.in |
The palace steeped in history now houses a museum to retain the ethos of Kerala's native culture and arts and to preserve its rich history for the posterity. There is a heritage garden on the south side of the palace and it houses many special local plants and trees. The Archaeological Garden at the northeastern side has collections of locally-found specimens dating back even to the Stone Age.
On display in the museum are various bronze items in the Bronze Gallery where there are bronze statues belonging to the period between the 12th and the 18th centuries, Sculpture gallery has granite statues from the 9th century to the 17th century, Numismatics Gallery, carries systematically arranged ancient coins, which were in circulation in the former province of Kochi and neighboring kingdoms and the history gallery depicting some of the milestones of the Kochi dynasty. The Epigraphy Gallery showcases the origin and evolution of ancient writings. Other galleries include, Household Utensils made of bronze and copper, used by the rulers of Kochi; and a Megalithic Gallery exhibiting remains of the great stone age.
The numismatic gallery is a remarkable one; it has coins used in Kerala from the 5th century B.C. Roman gold coins (from the Eeyyal hoard) and Travancore native coins (in silver), Veerarayans (gold coins) otta puthan and iratta puthan issued by the kings of Cochin are on display here. There are countless unique coins in the gallery. Of interest to the people are the coins issued by Tipu Sultan during his brief spell in Kerala, Indo-Dutch coins, Malabar coins (issued by the French), and coins of British India point to different periods of the history of Kerala.
http://www.keralaculture.org/shakthan-thampuran-palace-thrissur/439
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakthan_Thampuran_Palace
