Thiruvananthapuram Padmanabhaswamy Craft Kathakali Dance

Thiruvananthapuram — Kerala's capital — is home to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, one of the world's wealthiest temples by vault assets (estimated Rs 1 lakh crore+) managed by the Travancore royal family, and the Kuthiramalika (Puthenmalika) Palace Museum of the Travancore maharajas. The capital district's craft traditions include the Swathi Thirunal heritage of Carnatic classical music composed by Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma (1813-46) of Travancore, performed in the annual Swathi music festival. Thiruvananthapuram's Kathakali — the elaborate mask-makeup dance drama of Kerala performed over 8-12 hours in temple festivals — is supported by the Kerala Kalamandalam (university for traditional arts) and government sponsored festivals that maintain this extraordinarily complex visual theatre tradition.