South Tamilnadu (Week End Trip) => In & Around Nagercoil(Padmanabhapuram Palace, Tirparappu Falls, Mathur Aquaduct)

When working for an IPP company, I was a Project Engineer working at site and was stationed at a place called Radhapuram near Kanyakumari/ Nagercoil. Its the land of Windmills. Where ever we turn, all we could see is the Windmills. I was also working in the same line. Six days I use to have work at site and off on Sundays, so I will be all alone in the room. One or two Sundays can be managed sitting alone, but not all. So I decided to explore Kanyakumari and Nagercoil.

Let me start of with the exploration in and around Nagercoil with the present post and the future posts and then with Kanyakumari.

Nagercoil:

Nagercoil is situated close to the tip of the Indian peninsula, locked with the Western Ghats on all sides and is the southernmost town on the Indian mainland. The town was a part of the erstwhile Travancore state, or later Travancore-Cochin state, till almost a decade after the Indian independence in 1947. In 1956, the city and the District were merged with Tamil Nadu.Nagercoil derives its name from the famous old Nagaraja Temple (temple of the serpent king) which is in the central part of town. It has been an important temple for Hindus for centuries as well as a tourist attraction.The modern town of Nagercoil grew around Kottar, now a locality in the municipal limits. The town came to prominence during and after the reign of Maharaja Marthanda Varma, the king of Travancore, the capital of which was Padmanabhapuram, about 20 km to the north of Nagercoil. The capital was later shifted to Trivandrum, now Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala state, about 65 km to the north of Nagercoil. In the erstwhile princely state of Travancore, Nagercoil was the second most important town after the capital Trivandrum. Maharaja Marthanda Varma's successors continued the land, revenue and social reforms he instituted. Although Travancore was considered by many to be a "Hindu" administration, the rulers generally showed religious tolerance and were not hostile to European educators, missionaries and traders. Until the 19th century, the coffers of Travancore were greatly helped by revenues from the trade of pepper and other spices, with the European powers. Irrigation systems (an excellent system is still found around Nagercoil), dams, roads, schools etc. developed under the administration of the Travancore royals and their Dewans.At the time of India's independence from Britain, the Dewan of Travancore, Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyer, preferred Travancore to be a sovereign country, but he eventually gave up after a tough stand by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's federal minister in charge of home affairs, who wanted the princely state annexed to India. After a political fight in the 1950s led by A. Nesamony, sometimes known as Marshal Nesamony, the Government of Travancore-Cochin gave part of South Travancore (present day Kanyakumari District) to Tamil Nadu, because a majority of the population spoke Tamil in the district.Nagercoil has a pleasant, though humid, climate for a major part of the year. The maximum temperature during the summer hovers around 86 °F or 30 °C with moderate humidity at times. Nagercoil is the only Indian Town to receive both the north-east monsoon and the south-west monsoon. Nagercoil had a population of 224,329 of which 110,132 are Males and 114,197 are females.[5] Nagercoil has an average literacy rate of 100%.[6] In Nagercoil, 8.5% of the population is between the age group of 0 – 6 years. Though the official population count (for the municipal area) is close to 2.25 lakhs, a significant population lives outside the municipal limits, in the suburbs.Tamil is the most spoken language. English and Malayalam is also widely understood and spoken in the city.

   I planned everything the previous day on what places i could visit. One of my colleague was a native of Nagercoil and he agreed to accompany me.6:30hrs,the sun was peeping out from the clouds, I started my day with full of excitement. Nagercoil was 35kms from my place. Had my breakfast and visited my colleague's home. At 9:30hrs, we left his home and the first place of visit for the day was Padmanabhapuram Palace which is located close to the town of Thackalay(20kms from Nagercoil town).The watch showed 10:15hrs and we were inside the palace.The palace consists of the following structures: King's council chamber, Mother's palace(The mother of all the buildings which was the first structure built in the palace compound), The hall of performing arts, A four storeyed building at the centre of the palace complex and Southern palace.





    We walked in to the King’s Council chamber which is the most beautiful part of the entire palace complex. It has windows with coloured mica, which keeps the heat and the dust away and the interior of the council chamber remains cool and dark. Then a passage led us to the mother's palace, designed in traditional Kerala style is the oldest construction in the entire palace complex and is believed to be constructed around mid-16th century. On the south-west corner of the mother’s palace, there is a relatively small room called as the chamber of solitude which has very beautiful and intricate wood carvings of every description all around. Of particular interest, there is a pillar made of single jackfruit wood, with very detailed and beautiful floral designs.  

 

 

   Then we walked to the hall of performing arts which has solid granite pillars and gleaming black floor. The whole palace complex covers about four kilometers. We  moved to the next buliding for which we would have to walk for 5 minutes, which was located at the centre of the palace complex. The ground floor houses the royal treasury and the first floor houses the King's bedrooms. The ornamental bedstead is made of 64 types of herbal and medicinal woods, and was a gift from the Dutch merchants.  Most of the rooms here and in other parts of the palace complex have built-in recesses in walls for storing weapons like swords and daggers. The second floor houses the King's resting and study rooms and the top floor served as the worship chamber of the royal household.  Finally we had a quick view of the southern palace which serves as a heritage museum, exhibiting antique household articles and curios. Soon we were out of the palace and the time was 12:30hrs. having two more places to visit for the day, we made a move to Tirparappu Falls.

   Tirparappu falls is 27kms from Padmanabhapuram palace. At 13:05hrs, we were walking towards the falls. There were lots of shops selling dresses for the people who wanted to have bath in the falls. Lots of eatable shops were pulling us towards them. Being so hungry,we had some chilli bajji's and tea. Walking down  few meters, we got the scenic view of the falls .

 

The Kodayar River makes its descent at Thiruparappu. The water falls from a height of nearly 50 feet and the water flows for about seven months per year. The whole bed above the falls is one rocky mass which extends 250 metres upstream where the Thirparappu weir has been constructed for supplying water to the paddy fields.

 

   The view of the falls was amazing. A passage led to the top of the falls where we can see the river kodayar flowing and making its descent here. I was having fun and hitting the shutter button often. Spending nearly an hour, it was 14:05hrs and one more place in the list was yet to be visited which is Mathur Aquaduct.

 

   Mathur aquaduct was 25kms travel from Tirparappu falls. At 14:45hrs, I was standing on the bridge. You may get confused when i say Aquaduct and bridge. Let me make it clear.

 

Mathur Aqueduct or Mathur Hanging Trough, is an Aqueduct in Southern India built over the Pahrali River and is one of the longest and highest aqueducts in South Asia.It was constructed in 1966 by the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, K. Kamaraj, as a drought relief measure across the river Pahrali.Its purpose is to carry water for irrigation from an elevated level of one hill to another for a distance of close to one kilometer. This Aqueduct is necessitated due to the undulating land terrain of the area, which is also adjacent to the hills of the Western Ghats.

 

 

   Though the view from the height of 115ft  bridge was little scary, the view was amazing. It was 15:15hrs and almost time for us to head back. I dropped my colleague at his place and drove back to my room. That is how i passed one of the weekend.

 

   I will be writing about the other visited places in and around nagercoil in my next post.