Thiruvananthapuram was the capital of the kingdom of Travancore from 1750 until 1956, when the state of Kerala was created. Its name (formally readopted to replace "Trivandrum"), derives from thiru-anantha-puram - "the holy city of Anantha", the coiled snake on which the god Vishnu reclines in the midst of the cosmic ocean.

 

Vishnu is given a special name for this non-activity - Padma-nabha , "lotus-navel" - and is invariably depicted lying on the sacred snake with a lotus growing umbilically from his navel. The god Brahma sits inside the lotus, which represents the beginning of a new era. Padmanabha is the principal deity of the royal family of Travancore, and of Thiruvananthapuram's Shri Padmanabhaswamy temple .