Description of the attraction
Built in honor of one of the main Hindu Gods Vishnu, the Padmanabhaswamy temple is located in the capital of the southern state of Kerala, the city of Trivandrum, or as it is more commonly called Tiruvananthapuram.
Gopuram, the main tower of the temple, was built in 1566. It has seven levels and is over 30 meters high. It is decorated with many statues and sculptures, each of which can be considered a true architectural masterpiece. A long corridor with a colonnade of 365 beautiful granite columns leads inside the temple. Their surface is completely covered with carvings, which are an example of the true craftsmanship of ancient sculptors.
In the main hall of the building is the main shrine of the temple - a statue of Vishnu, depicting him in the aspect of Sri Padmanabha, reclining on the snake Anantha or Adi Sesha, a lotus grows from his navel, on which Brahma sits. Vishnu's left hand is located above the linga - the stone-container of the divine essence - Shiva. And next to him are his two wives - Sridevi, the Goddess of Fortune, and Bhudevi, the Goddess of the Earth. The statue is made of sil, a fossil quarried from the bottom of the sacred Kali-Gandaki river, which is black in color and is considered the anikonic incarnation of Vishnu. In addition, the top of the statue is covered with a special substance "Katusarkara Yogam" - an Ayurvedic mixture that does not allow dust and dirt to settle on the surface of the idol.
The temple hosts a ten-day festival of traditional dance and dramatic art of Kerala - Kathakali twice a year. But only people who practice Hinduism can enter Padmanabhaswamy, in addition, they are required to observe a very strict dress code.
