Kazhakkoottam: A Place With History
where heritage meets the future
Long before it became Kerala’s IT gateway, Kazhakkoottam was the seat of a local chieftain, Kazhakkoottathu Ugran Pillai — one of the Ettuveetil Pillamar, the “Lords of the Eight Houses,” who held considerable sway in the Travancore court. In the late 18th century, Ugran Pillai was among the nobles who rose against the Travancore ruler, King Marthanda Varma. After the rebellion was put down, the king had Ugran Pillai’s palace at Kazhakkoottam destroyed, and a pond was dug in its place. According to local history, Marthanda Varma later built a Sree Krishna temple nearby, said to have been an act of atonement.
Both the pond and the temple have endured for generations and remain part of Kazhakkoottam today. For those who live in or visit the area, the temple isn’t just a historical footnote — it’s a living part of the neighbourhood, a short distance from KLP Residency, and a place many locals still visit for daily worship and festival celebrations. Its presence gives Kazhakkoottam a quiet sense of continuity: a centuries-old place of faith standing alongside the glass-and-steel campuses of Technopark that have since made this stretch of Thiruvananthapuram synonymous with modern industry.
