Navaratri idols leave Padmanabhapuram Palace for Thiruvananthapuram under royal sword

One of south India's oldest Navaratri customs began again this week when the sacred idols of Goddess Saraswathi, Velimala Kumaraswamy and Munnoottinanga Devi set out from Padmanabhapuram Palace on Friday, October 9, 2026, on their journey to Thiruvananthapuram for the festival. The procession left after the traditional handover of the royal sword of the Travancore Maharaja at the palace's Uppirikka Malika, where the sword had been kept on a silk-covered pedestal, and after a guard of honour from the armed police of both Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The idols were due to reach East Fort in Thiruvananthapuram on the evening of Sunday, October 11, the first day of Navaratri, where pujas at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple mark the start of the festival in the capital.

Padmanabhapuram Palace stands in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, yet each Navaratri it sends its most sacred idols to the capital of Kerala. That alone says a great deal about how south India's cultural map was drawn long before today's state lines. The palace was a seat of the Travancore royal family, and the procession keeps alive a link between the old kingdom's two centres that modern borders have not broken.

The ritual is also an unusual example of two states sharing one tradition. Police from Tamil Nadu and Kerala both salute the procession, and the Kerala government receives it at the border. Few festivals in India are carried across a state line in this formal way every year, with both governments taking part.

The choice of deities fits the meaning of Navaratri in Kerala, where the festival is closely tied to learning and the arts. Saraswathi, the goddess of knowledge, music and speech, is at the heart of the procession. In the days that follow, homes and temples in the state honour books, instruments and tools, and the festival ends with Vidyarambham, when young children are formally introduced to letters. A procession that carries Saraswathi to the capital at the start of the festival is the public, ceremonial side of those private family rites.

For readers elsewhere, it is a reminder that Navaratri is not one festival but many. In Gujarat it is garba, in Bengal it is Durga Puja, in Mysuru it is Dasara, and in this corner of the south it is a solemn journey of idols, a royal sword and two states' police guards.

Short-term: Devotees and visitors in Thiruvananthapuram gather for the arrival of the idols and the Navaratri pujas that follow, and roads along the route see crowds and traffic arrangements during the procession.

Long-term: Keeping the full ceremony, from the sword handover to the joint police guard, helps preserve a shared Tamil Nadu-Kerala heritage that would otherwise survive only in history books, and gives both states a living tradition to protect.

Who is affected: Devotees in Kanyakumari district and Thiruvananthapuram; the temple and palace authorities who organise the procession; police in both states; and families preparing for the learning rituals of Navaratri.

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