DOCUMENTATION

SAKTHAN THAMPURAN PALACE

 Shakthan Thampuran Palace is situated in
City of Thrissur in Kerala state, India.
It is named as Vadakkekara Palace, was
reconstructed in Kerala-Dutch style in
1795 by Ramavarma Thampuran of the
erstwhile Princely State of Cochin, well
as Sakthan Thampuran (Greatest ruler of
the Cochin dynasty) is preserved
by Archeological Department.
The palace was converted into a museum
in 2005 by State.

Its basic structure consists of a two-storey

building, built in the Nalu-kettu (four blocks)
style of Kerala architecture in which four blocks
of residential quarters are built around a
central courtyard. The rooms of the palace are
spacious, floors are paved with Italian marble,
walls are extra-thick, and roofs are very high.
Such a construction style protects the residents
from the ill effects of the weather to a very
large extent.
 Serpent Grove or Sarpa Kavu is a snake shrine built for
worship of serpent gods like Naga Raja (King of the
snakes) and other snake deities, which 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 nil.
The snake deities worshiped in serpent grove in the place
is Naga raja and Nagayakshi. They are located in the
palace garden and can be found under a Saptarna tree.

Located on the southern side of the

Shakthan Palace is the Heritage Garden, set
up recently to exhibit and preserve some of
the indigenous varieties
of plants and treesof Kerala. The
archaeological garden, situated in the
northeastern part of the palace, has
collections from the Stone Age recovered
from the outskirts of Thrissur.