 thumb|right|300px|padmanabhapuram palace padmanabhapuram a city 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. ==history== padmanabhapuram was the erstwhile capital of the princely state of travancore in india. the travancore king, rama varma, who was popularly known as dharma raja, shifted the capital in 1795 from padmanabhapuram to thiruvananthapuram. by that time, the boundaries of the travancore had extended to half of the present day kerala state. 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 the then travancore- cochin state were included in the then madras state (later renamed as tamil nadu) as kanyakumari district. even now, padmanabhapuram has a substantial malayali population and the people therein understand both tamil and malayalam irrespective of what their mother tongue is. ==geography== padmanabhapuram is located at .{{cite web|url=http://www.fallingrain.com/world/in/25/padmanabhapuram.
Cities_and_towns_in_Kanyakumari_district Culture_of_Kerala Former_capital_cities_in_India Historical_Indian_regions