The Nalknad Palace

 Finally the day had arrived! We were on our way to the Nalknad palace. It was a lovely day and every single one of us was excited.

The palace was built between the years 1792 and 1794 AD. This palace was the last refuge of the last of the Haleri kings of Kodagu, Chikka Veerarajendra before he was deposed by the British. As soon as we reached the palace, a huge door awaited for us. The entrance to the palace has two large doors with pointed cones placed on them. The door was made of metal which prevented elephants from entering the place

There was a small mantap where the king’s sister’s marriage took place. It was a beautiful mantap, with beautiful carvings. The tour guide gave us a handful of information about the history of the palace. It has a secret path through which they could go to the fort in Madikeri.

Basically, it was a huge house.Inside the palace, we were stunned to see all the carvings and the paintings.

Later on, we entered inside a small room where we couldn’t even see our hands if we put them in front. It was very dark in there. It is a place where people could hide at the time of attacks. The walls of the house were painted using eggs. There were several paintings which are now almost ruined.

The palace is a two storeyed house, which had rooms for the king, the queen, and several other rooms. There is a small space in the house from where an arrow can be shot to the person standing in the front of the house. That is really amazing!

We interacted with the tour guide and he explained to us about the significance of the place. It was indeed very nice to visit the Nalknad palace.