Devalok
Local story · 1 telling · South India

The king who gave his kingdom to Padmanabha

In January 1750 Marthanda Varma of Travancore laid his crown, umbrella, fans and sword with tulsi leaves on the stone step before Padmanabhaswamy, signed the kingdom over to the god, and took the sword back as the god's servant.

Who is in it

Places: Thiruvananthapuram

The story, beat by beat

  1. Marthanda Varma, having built Travancore by war, rebuilds Padmanabhaswamy's temple and its single-stone mandapam.
  2. On a January morning in 1750 he comes with his family, his Dewan and the temple council.
  3. He lays crown, umbrella, chamaras and sword with tulsi on the Ottakkal Mandapam.
  4. The deed gives all lands between the Thovala fort and the Kavana river to the god for as long as sun and moon last.
  5. He receives the sword back from the priest and from then on he and his heirs are Padmanabhadasa.

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How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Popular retelling

The deed and the ceremony

South India · Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Vaishnava

Marthanda Varma had made Travancore by force: he had broken the nobles who opposed him and beaten the Dutch at Colachel. Then he rebuilt Padmanabhaswamy's temple and set a single great slab of stone, the Ottakkal Mandapam, in front of the reclining god. On the fifth of Makaram in the Kollam year 925, January 1750, he came to the temple with his family, his Dewan Ramayyan Dalawa and the temple council, laid on that stone the crown, the royal umbrella, the two white fans and his sword with a handful of tulsi, and signed a deed giving the god all the land between the Thovala fort in the east and the Kavana river in the west, to last as long as the sun and moon. The priest handed the sword back. From that day the king ruled as Padmanabhadasa, the servant of Padmanabha, and every king after him took the title, down to Sree Chithira Thirunal.

Thrippati Danam: a ritual by which the rulers of Travancore became Padmanabhadasas (Hindupost); Thrippadidanam (Malayalam Wikipedia); Padmanabhaswamy Temple (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Sources: Thrippati Danam: a ritual by which the rulers of Travancore became Padmanabhadasas (Hindupost); Thrippadidanam (Malayalam Wikipedia); Padmanabhaswamy Temple (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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