A day at Hill Palace Museum, Thripunithura

My hubby was on one of his official cochin trip and he decided to take the family also along with him this time…..Being a keralite by birth, I hardly been to any places in Kerala except my native town, Thrissur and married to my hubby whose native town is Palghat, I’ve been to couple of houses there…..Hardly visited any places…except Guruvayoor, couple of times…..
We stayed in Cochin for 3 days…My hubby leaves to office in the morning to visit his customer and plant ….my children and me alone in the hotel …watching TV…eating lunch from the hotel's restaurant.... the typical kerala dishes…cooked in coconut milk, coconut oil….calling the “Room services” 5 times a day..to clean up the mess my children has done…tearing papers….spreading the whole place with bit and pieces of paper….killing time someway or the other…..Evening we go out for dinner or the nearby park…….On hearing my pathetic situation and my sulking face, my pragmatic hubby decided to drop us off at Hill Palace Museum, Thripunithura, ½ km drive from our hotel the next day…..and he is off to his work once again…..We, three of us, climbed all the steps to reach the hill top..and my children got exhausted…They asked me to carry them on my hips….I tried to cajole them and divert their attention to flowers and garden around…My son was not interested to go inside the museum…I can understand…that it is way above their age to appreciate the archeological property of our historic country…But he got freshed when he saw a Big elephant structure right in front of the museum…..Waah!!! he was shouting at the top of his voice attracting other visitors around..I have to hush him always….We went from one room to another…looking at the ancient coins, the ornaments…my daughter says “I want this ear ring ammey”…”It is diamond, da..costly…we can’t afford…”…She continues..”But I liked it”…The lady standing next to me gave a big smile to me hearing my daughter’s callous request…..We moved to another room with lots of porcelain vessels…mostly Chinese….one of it was broken/cracked…my son says “Pottiya paathram..enda ividey vechirikkiyunu….thuurakallaiaandu….aiiyee…”..( Broken vessel..why have they kept here?..without throwing….)….”Sabthathillu samsarikenda, Monu…Avaru pidichu porathakkum namalley..”..(Don’t speak loudly…they will throw us out)…He was not convinced with my answer….” The next room had some costume display of King’s and Queens..with the hood…My son exclaimed..”Nooku ammey….chudithaar…ammey dey polla…..thoppi vechirukkinu…”..(look amma, chudithaar..similar to yours….”…”Shhhhhh”…I go…On seeing the knife displays …my son wants knife..”Ennekku eduthu tha ma…”…(Give me the knife)…I dragged him out of the room……My daughter was still sulking that she didn’t get her ear-ring…..Appa!!! I was envious of my hubby…Why me alone?...... Another room had this 'Simhasana' (the throne or the king's chair)….My son wanted to sit on that…”Chair ammey…red colour seat…”…yeah..yeah..“Nammukkum onu vanghichu vekkiyam….”..(We will buy one for our house..)…”Seri seri…Acchan aduthu parayam namukku vedichutharan”…(yes, yes…We will say to Acchan to buy one for us…)..My children now only realized that Acchan is not around to visit the museum…Their focus turned to Acchan…”evidey anu acchan, ammey?” (Where is acchan, amma?)….”Office”….We reached the final exit…my son once again got earthed near the entrance where this big elephant..Nandi…statue was there…luckily, it was fenced by the movable post…my son’s enthusiasm …one of the post down tumbling with a loud noise “thud”…I looked around to see if any official people is around…I tried to lift the post to keep it back in its position…It’s hardly moving…turned all the direction to see if someone had seen this…Then we 3 vanished in a split of a second…and reappeared near the “footwear” collection counter…..My face turned towards the museum entrance in case if some official person is following us….No one …Grt8 escape….We took some pictures…..in front of the tharavadu…..and took the stairs once again back…My children got exhausted by then…I offered some chocolates and biscuits and water…Called up my dear hubby to find out his position…..he says “will be back in 1 hour”…”1 hour”…What am I to do there with 2 “about-to-get-restless” kids?......I looked around and my curious eye darted on the welcome sign of “children’s park”…ok….We hurriedly entered the park…hardly occupied by children….few love pairs here and there…busy 'tête-à-tête ing….My kids started with their enquiring questions about them %^%^&@#$@$…We went to another corner of the park leaving some privacy for the lovers….swing, slides, and what not….and killed time till my hubby turned up to take us back to the hotel……
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About Hill Palace Museum : It's the largest archeological museum in Kerala and is the official residence of the Kochi Royal Family. The museum was established in 1865. The oldest building in the complex is a single storeyed Kerala style 'ettukettu' constructed around 1850 AD with an adjacent pond, temple and urappura. The other buildings are a combination of traditional and western architecture. In 1980, the palace was taken over by the Department Of Archaeology and later converted into a Museum. Set on top of a hillock and surrounded by terraced garden with fountains, ponds and lawns, this palace-turned-museum displays 14 categories of exhibits including paintings, murals, sculpture in stone and plaster of paris, manuscripts, inscriptions, carvings etc. The collections displayed in the museum are mainly from the Travancore Royal House, Paliam Devaswom and from the department of Archaeology. It has a gold crown embedded with precious stones and many valuable coins, ornaments , majestic beds and samples of epigraphy. The museum also displays 200 antique pieces of pottery and ceramic vases from China and Japan, Kudakkallu (tomb stone), Thoppikkallu (hood stone), menhirs, granite, laterite memorials, rock cut weapons belonging to the stone age, wooden temple models. There is an amazing array of plaster cast models of objects from Mohanjodaro and Harappa of the Indus Valley civilization of North India. The museum also houses a gallery of contemporary art.
Paliam gallery in the museum contains the collections donated by the Paliyathachan's family. Paliyathachan's were hereditary Prime Ministers to the Cochin Maharaja’s for a long period. This gallery was opened in 1991. The gallery of cabinet Hall displays royal furniture's including the 'Simhasana' (the throne or the king's chair). Exhibits in the numismatic gallery are denarius (roman silver coins), punch marked coins, coins during the period British period etc.
In Portrait gallery, oil portrait of the Maharaja’s of the Cochin State are exhibited. This gallery also contain certain thanjavur paintings. Various wood carvings which are part of Enadimangalam Temple belonging to14th century as well as unique ivory items, wooden sculptures etc are displayed in Wood Carvings gallery. Heritage museum which was opened in 1995, exhibits traditional household utensils, art effects and religious worship materials.
Courtesy: (Internet)