Padmanabhapuram

thumb|right|300px|Padmanabhapuram Palace Padmanabhapuram () is a town and a municipality near Thuckalay in Kanyakumari district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. As of 2011, the town had a population of 21,342. Padmanabhapuram was the capital of Travancore state in the past. In 1795, the King of Travancore, Rama Varma (known as Dharma Raja moved the capital from Padmanabhapuram to Thiruvananthapuram. At that time the boundaries of Travancore state included half the area of modem Kerala state. In 1947, after independence, Padmanabhapuram became part of Travancore-Cochin state When Indian states ware reorganized on the basis of language. In 1957, Padmanabhapuram along with other Tamil-speaking areas were ceded to Madras State, while the Malayalam-speaking areas became part of Kerala. Later the name of Madras State was changed to Tamil Nadu.

==History== Padmanabhapuram was the erstwhile capital of the Kingdom of Travancore (now part of India). The Travancore King, Rama Varma, who was popularly known as Dharma Raja, shifted the capital in 1795 from Padmanabhapuram to Thiruvananthapuram. At that time, the boundaries of the Travancore had extended to less than half of the present day Indian state of Kerala. Up to 1957, Padmanabhapuram formed part of the Travancore Kingdom and subsequently the Travancore-Cochin State. It was when the states were divided on linguistic basis that Kalkulam (including Padmanabhapuram), Vilavancode, Thovala and Agastheeswaram Taluks of erstwhile Thiruvananthapuram District of Travancore-Cochin State were included in the Madras State (later renamed as Tamil Nadu) as Kanyakumari District.