History of Thiruvananthapuram

Several historic landmarks of the city, including the Kowdiar Palace, University of Kerala, and Napier Museum were built during that period.

Realizing it was an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, the Pulayar and his wife made offerings of milk and congee in a coconut shell.

The region around Coimbatore was ruled by the Cheras during Sangam period between c. 1st and the 4th centuries CE and it served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, the principal trade route between the Malabar Coast and Tamil Nadu.

[8] The place names, the dialects of Malayalam spoken, and the customs, those exist in Southern parts of Kerala, still reveal a close relationship with Tamil heritage.

In 1684, during her regency, the English East India Company obtained a sandy piece of land at Anchuthengu (Anjengo) on the sea coast, about 32 km north of Thiruvananthapuram city, for erecting a factory and fortifying it.

The Rani was brought back in triumph to Trivandrum, but in 1696 AD, Kottayam Kerala Varma was assassinated by the trustees within the precincts of his palace.

[12] The locals of Thiruvananthapuram supported him against the Ettuveetil Pillamar and Ettara Yogam when he was the heir-apparent, and when he was attacked by the agents of the trustees, he fled to the safety of Trivandrum, from where he counterattacked.

[13] As a result of the annexation of neighboring chiefdoms, the artists and scholars from these places migrated to Trivandrum, turning it into a cultural center.

Marthanda Varma gave patronage to different temple art forms including Koothu, Padhakam, Kathakali, Thullal, and Koodiyattam.

[14] In 1791, the English East India Company signed a treaty to protect Travancore from the Kingdom of Mysore and under its terms was allowed to install a Resident and troops in Thiruvananthapuram.

In 1799, Velu Thampi Dalawa, then a Karyakar of Talakkulam, led a march of the local people to Thiruvananthapuram to protest against the corruption of the King's ministers.

During the reign of Maharaja Moolam Thirunal (1885–1924), a College of Fine Arts was opened here besides the several English, Malayalam and Tamil schools, all over the State.

A Law class was opened in Thiruvananthapuram in 1874, and the main building of the old Kerala Government Secretariat was designed and constructed by the Maharajah's chief engineer, Mr. Barton.

The activities of the Indian National Congress echoed in Thiruvananthapuram and other parts of Kerala during the reign of Maharaja Sree Moolam Thirunal.

The period of Maharaja Sri Chitra Thirunal Bala Rama Varma who took the reins of administration in 1931, witnessed many-sided progress.

The king of Travancore, Chitra Thirunal Bala Rama Varma, became the Rajpramukh of the Travancore-Cochin Union from 1 July 1949 until 31 October 1956.

With the establishment of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1962, Thiruvananthapuram became the cradle of India's ambitious space program.

Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Padmanabhapuram Palace
South India in early 11th century CE (around 1000 CE)
A map of Malabar Coast drawn by Homann Heirs in 1733. At that time, Travancore was only a small territory wedged between Kollam and Kanyakumari , as shown in the map (present-day districts of Trivandrum and Kanyakumari only). The vast region of Malabar Coast between Kannur and Kollam was under the control of Zamorin of Calicut then. It was in the latter half of the 18th century, that Travancore inherited the kingdoms as far as Cochin and became a powerful kingdom, and Thiruvananthapuram became a major city of Kerala.
A language map of India prepared in 1822.
The Napier Museum was established in 1855.
The Trivandrum International Airport was established in 1932