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Items in the museum:

• Coral Reef:



• Bones of a whale washed ashore at Manavala kurichy, Kanyakumari Dt. in September 1993:



• Arms: (From left) Sword of Kattabomman Sivakasi, Tirupachethi Aruval Madurai, and other swords. (Below) Cannon Balls from Udaygiri fort. AD 1741. The cannon balls displayed here were unearthed from Udaygiri fort of Kanyakumari District. Udaygiri fort is situated at Puliyoorkurichi on Trivandrum-Nagercoil Highways. This fort is very near to Padmanabhapuram. It is believed that Raja Raja Chola destroyed the fort during his campaign. The fort was rebuilt in the reign of Marthandavarma the Travancore king in the year 1741-1744 under the supervision of De Lannoy, who served as the chief of the Travancore army for 37 years. Udaygiri fort was once the most important military station of the erstwhile Travancore rulers when they were having Padmanabhapuram as their capital. It is built of massive granite blocks on one side and a natural hillock on the other. Foundry for the manufacture of guns, mortars and cannon balls are also established within the fort under the supervision of De Lannoy. De Lannoy lived in this fort with his family for several years and died on 1st June 1777 AD. His body was buried within the fort and a Chapel was built there. Inscriptions regarding his life history are found over his tomb.



• Paintings of Raja Ravi Varma: Raja Ravi Varma is the pioneer of the modern India art. He was born in 1848 AD at Killimanur, 120 kms. from the town of Kottayam in Travancore state (presently Kerala). He learnt the art of painting from an English artist, Theodore Jenson, who was at the court of the Travancore state. Though he copied western oil on canvas techniques for the first time in India, he chose form his subject themes from Hindu mythology. Since he is a Thamburas, he is realted to a Royal house of Travancore. He painted scenes form the Hindu mythology and introduced large bright areas of color in his portraits and landscapes. His younger brother C. Raja Raja Varma joined with him as a companion and collaborator during his art career. His work was acclaimed at the Pune exhibition in 1880 and the art exhibitions held in Vienna and Chicago in 1892. The rulers of Mysore and Travancore appreciated his numerous paintings picturing Hindu mythology.The Government of India considers raja Ravi Varma’s paintings as national treasures of India. The Government museum, Chennai has 15 paintings of Raja Ravi Varma and his family members, Raja Raja Varma and Raja Rama Varma. Among them, ten paintings have been put on display. Use of fiber optic lighting, a first for Indian museums, when it was put up in 1999 enhances the visual effects besides protecting the painting from damage. “Sakuntala” is the masterpiece of his work. The other famous paintings are, “The Miser”, ” The lady with the mirror”, and “Yasodha and Krishna”. In India, his paintings can be seen at Sri Chitra art gallery, Trivandrum, The Laxmi Vilas Palace, Baroda, The Palace, Mysore, The Udaipur Palace, The Salar Jung museum Hyderabad, The National gallery of modern art, New Delhi, Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum, Baroda, Government Art Gallery, Baroda, Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery, Jaga Mohan Palace, Mysore, and M.N.F. gallery, Challakudi, Cochin.Heroic figures, beautifully balanced compositions and subtle modeling through light and shade are the basic feature of Renaissance paintings. Renaissance paintings showed the potentialities of the oil medium. Particularly Raphael’s portrait paintings reveal mastery of composition and expression. Ravi Varma’s paintings also exhibit the same trend.



• Musical instruments: The sounds and actions, which were produced by man before he started to talk and write are the Pioneers of Music and dance respectively. To play music and to enhance the music various instruments were played additionally. Such instruments, which enhanced music, are called as musical instruments. These instruments are classified as percussion instruments, wind instruments and stringed instruments.
  1. String Instruments: Instruments, which are played using strings such as yazh, Panchaki, Swargut are called as stringed instruments.
  2. Wind instruments: Wind instruments like flute, Nadaswaram have unique ability of giving good music when played solely.
  3. Percussion instruments: Instruments like Urumi, Drums, Tabla, Mridangam, Tamukhu, Thappatai are percussion instruments.



• Kani-tribe: The Kani or Kanikar tribe lived in the midst of thick foliage at Pechiparai and Perunchani. They are short, dark skinned and with platyrrhine noses. They shift from one place to another. Their living areas are situated on the forest slopes and they practice terrace cultivation. They cultivate cereals, pulses, sweet potatoes and tobacco. They collect minor forest products like honey, wax, ginger, and cardamom. They are good at trapping and capturing elephants, pigs, etc. The dead are buried.



• Human Physiology:



• Costume Dolls:



• Dolphin Skeleton:



• Swamithope Ayyavaikundasamy temple car (AD 1850): The temple car displayed here was the Old temple car presented by Swami Thava Thiru Bala Prajabathy Adikalar of Swamithope Ayya Vaikundasamy temple, Kanyakumari District. This temple was dedicated to Swami Vaikundar. The temple is situated at about 7 kms. from Kanyakumari.According to Ayya Vaikundasamy cult there is one god- the supreme power. God has no form. One must see God in one’s own image while standing before a mirror. Swami Vaikundar’s predictions were recorded in his divine book “The Akila Thirattu Ammanai”. According to him no deity worship should be practiced. Accordingly, no deity figures are found in this Temple Car. But, the wood carvings represent the figures of Yallis, musicians, sages, women folks, worshippers, Kings and soldiers. This is a peculiar to this temple car. It is known that this temple car was built on 1852 and ran up to 1980. During this period of time this temple car was taken around on procession approximately about 387 times.



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